Love, Aerith
by Mint
Summary: They say you never forget your first love. Aerith is about to see if it's true. Aerith, Cloud and Zack.
1. Beginnings

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**Note:**Hi! Just a small introduction…I had this story in my mind for a while now and I finally decided to post it after some serious thought. This will be something about Aerith falling in love with Zack but then she thinks he's dead when she receives some news about him and she's miserable until a certain someone comes into her life. The worst part is that Zack is not dead but willing to return home to Aerith. We will see how it goes…

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**Love, Aerith**

**Chapter 1: **Beginnings

_He was the one falling from the sky and yet when he opened his eyes to see where he had landed he claimed to have seen an angel._

It all started that summer morning when she was in the church watering her flowers like she was used to. But she was far from imagining that that was no ordinary summer day. She heard a loud crack coming from the ceiling before a man came falling down onto her flower bed, if she hadn't moved two steps back the man would have fallen on top of her. That wouldn't have been nice.

The next thing she remembers, Aerith was staring into a pair of deep glowing blue eyes that reminded her of two polished sapphire jewels. She wondered, that moment, how could have he survived such fall? Must the flower bed be that soft? He wasn't even bruised. He even managed to jump up to his feet in a flip of his back. She had turned sixteen that year and it felt to her that the heavens must have granted her with the most beautiful of the gifts, she thought. Love. Of course, she didn't know it at that moment. All she knew was that the two deep blue eyes were staring at her intently.

"I'm Zack!" He had to repeat before she could finally realize she had been lost in his gaze for a long minute while he was there. She was dazzled at how beautiful he looked like. He had black spiky hair, golden tanned skin and those glowing blue eyes, a perfect combination. Not to mention the muscled body he hid under black pants, a dark blue navy turtle neck shirt and dark boots.

He had told her, once they started knowing each other better, he was training to become a hero, to be the best SOLDIER around so it was only natural that he spent almost everyday training in the Shinra Corporation headquarters or out on missions. But when he wasn't training he spent his days with her. Soon enough they had become two teenage best friends, but Aerith couldn't have predicted that day, that their love wasn't meant to last.

Four months after the day they met, winter had brought rain with it. It rained almost every day now but they didn't care much. Aerith even told him she enjoyed the rainy days. Too much sun was a bit annoying actually until she gets tired of the rain and hoped for the long sunny days.

They sat on a bench from the park of the slums, well, Zack sat while Aerith rested the back of her head on his lap and the rest of her body on the rest of the bench. She was looking up at the sky; on that particular part of the slums the platform above had a gap that allowed seeing the grey sky above. It wasn't raining anymore so they took the opportunity to take a walk when they finally decided to sit down. The air smelled like wet dirt and there was a cold breeze blowing. Everyone was tucked inside their houses so the streets were mostly empty. They could hear the sound of raindrops gently falling from the roofs to the floor. It felt peaceful there.

"I don't get it." Aerith confided looking up at the clouds above. "If you're already first class… Why do you say you want to be the best? I thought it didn't get better than that. I thought you had reached the top already."

"There are many first classes around, well not as many as seconds or thirds, but there is quite a selection of first classes. I want to be above those first classes you know? I want to be hero type." Zack replied smiling dreamily.

"I see…" Aerith sighed closing her eyes. "Don't they get more and more dangerous the missions they give you once you're on that level?"

"Yeah!" Zack grinned. "They start being entertaining."

"You're so full of yourself!" Aerith giggled patting him on the forehead. He reached for her hand and with her fingers under his hand he caressed his cheek softly with them.

"The best part of it of course is when I come back and you're here waiting for me. I love it that when I'm coming down the road to meet you, you have this huge smile across your face." Zack spoke smiling down at her. She had eyes the most beautiful green he had ever seen.

"Oh stop it!" Aerith giggled sitting up on the bench. "I bet you say that to every girl you meet on your journeys."

"Only to the special ones." Zack smirked and Aerith's hand went flying in his direction until it hit him in the arm. "I'm kidding!" Zack closed his eyes faking some kind of pain she knew he hadn't felt. His muscled arms were too strong to feel a girl's punch. That, and Aerith could never hurt him even if she wanted to although he sometimes deserved it with his remarks.

"When will you stop?" Aerith looked down to the ground seriously now. "Going on missions I mean."

"Never!" Zack blinked at the girl. "It's what I love doing!"

"I know, but I get so worried that you might get injured one of these days." Aerith played with her fingers looking down.

"I'm a first class for one reason Aerith! If I wasn't able to walk out of the missions alive and well I wouldn't be first class!"

"You can't always be that optimistic!" Aerith turned at him glaring.

"But it's how I am!" Zack retorted but he felt bad for her, after all it wasn't fair for her to always be waiting for him while he was gone and asked her not to be worried about him. He himself worried about her even when she was safely inside her house. He reached for her placing one arm around her shoulders and pulling her to him. She grasped her red buttoned coat to her so she could get warmer and rested her head on his shoulder.

The next day he sent a message to her mobile phone that he would go meet her later that night.

"He knows I don't like to go out at night…" Aerith murmured watching the text message he had sent her and sighed. If it was dangerous to walk during the day because of the monsters and the Shinra infantrymen who enjoyed whistling and say inappropriate things to the girls, at night it was even more dangerous and propitious to those. She would walk with Zack of course but she always felt uncomfortable to leave at night. She also didn't like to be depending on him to save her all the time.

She had thought before to start learning some kind of fighting skills so she could learn how to defend herself if the situation called for it. Zack couldn't be always around her to protect her all the time. She asked Zack if he could help her once and he did but the lesson ended as soon as Aerith scratched her knee and elbows, so Zack quickly gave up on continuing the training although Aerith had to yell at him that the scratches were nothing.

"Do you prefer I get attacked by some monster and can't defend myself?" Aerith had said. "I'm bound to gain more than a few scratches if I don't learn how to defend myself!"

"I won't let you get attacked ever! I'll always be there to protect you." Zack countered.

"You know that's not possible!"

But the discussion ended there and in fact there hadn't been one day Aerith got attacked when Zack wasn't around. It was like Zack had made a contract with the monsters to only attack once he was with Aerith. It wouldn't surprise her if he had actually managed to do that.

"But if it's the only time I can see him, it will have to be at night." She sighed and rolled over on her bed to get up by the other side of it. She put on a pink knee-length dress and a creamy white long sleeved buttoned coat over it. Finishing with her brown hiking boots she decided to leave her golden brown hair loose shaking it with her hands so it could fall freely down her back. She looked to the mirror and saw her reflection. She never thought of herself as pretty and she found herself thinking if Zack didn't too. They had been hanging out for such a long time now it seemed and Zack didn't show any interest in her more than being best friends. She wondered if she had something in her that wasn't really his type of girl to date.

Her feelings for Zack were starting to become clear to her. She loved to be around him, he made her laugh, and he could be so sweet to her at times it was hard to resist falling into his arms. But was it love? Did she love him to the point of wanting to be his girlfriend, to be able to kiss him whenever she wanted and still keep that relationship they had between them so far?

She sometimes felt afraid when thinking about getting involved with Zack. She had never had a boyfriend before. She felt her cheeks blush lightly feeling a little embarrassed at how she would look like being his girlfriend. When he would stare intently into her eyes smiling while caressing her flushed cheeks right at the edge of a kiss. How would she react? But the most important of all, did she want to be more than friends at that moment? More important than that actually, did he want to be her boyfriend? Did he look at her differently? Her stomach was killing her as she felt nervous to think those things about Zack.

She looked away from the mirror. Boyfriend or not, the truth is she couldn't be without Zack. Their friendship was more important than anything to her.

The night came in slowly and painfully just as she thought it would be. She didn't like waiting that much, especially waiting for Zack when he was coming from a mission, she always felt uneasy. But the hours passed by with no sight of him. Elmyra, her mother, told her when it was past midnight that maybe he wasn't coming anymore and her daughter should go to bed. Aerith gave up waiting for him at last and went upstairs. Soon enough she was asleep on her bed, fully dressed and with her mobile phone held tightly around her hand in front of her face in case he called.

Tap…

It was about 3 in the morning when she woke up startled by a tapping noise at her bedroom window. Another tap. She lifted her head listening closely. Another one of those taps. She sat up in time to see a pebble gently hitting her window pane causing those taps she had heard. She rose to her feet rubbing her eyes to open them widely. Reaching her window she slid it open and poked her head into the night air. Outside and looking up at her window stood Zack grinning at her. He waved.

"Are you insane?" She whispered loud enough for him to hear and low enough to not wake her mother up.

"Come down!" He whispered back calling her. "I said I'd come at night!"

"Yes but not this late!" Aerith replied before disappearing into her room.

Once outside, she carefully closed her front door hoping she hadn't made much noise coming down. She didn't want to worry her mother by having to leave that late at night. Elmyra trusted Zack but that might have been a little too much for the older woman to take.

"What are you doing Zack?" She glared at him shaking her head. "Do you know how late it is?" Aerith didn't usually get mad at him but she had waited all day for him to come and now that she was asleep he woke her up to come into the coldness of the night.

"I'm sorry…" Zack apologized. "But would you rather I didn't come at all?"

"You could have warned me you'd come this late…" Aerith sighed. She had to admit she was always happy to see him no matter what time it was and that made her feel better.

"I have something important to tell you and it couldn't wait." Zack reached for her hand and pulled her along the road with him. Aerith followed him thinking that she should have left her house wearing a scarf since the night was cold. What could he possibly want to tell her that made her leave her house at 3 in the morning that it couldn't wait until the next day? Soon enough they stopped walking at the park next to where they had been sitting the other day.

"Aerith." Zack swallowed closing his eyes. Aerith wondered what could possibly drive Zack nervous. "What I wanted to tell you is… that I'm crazy about you."

"W-What?" Aerith's world froze right on that minute. She widened her eyes and looked at him petrified. Gently, it started raining. She looked up at the skies feeling the cold raindrops on her skin and then she looked back at him. The two blue beams stared intently at her while his lips were pressed into a thin line.

"I can't stop thinking about you Aerith. My friend Angeal says I'm even more distracted when fighting and all! He also says he would love to meet the girl who makes my mind wander away from work!" Zack took both her hands in his and closed in on her resting his forehead on hers. "At first I didn't know what it was, but the truth is… I want to be with you more than just a friend. I spend the days thinking about kissing you. Aerith I… I love you."

They both closed their eyes and as the rain started getting heavier wetting their hair they gradually leaned towards one another. Aerith felt his warm breath on her lips, the gentleness of his skin on hers. Slowly and tenderly they kissed and it was magical like Aerith had always dreamed it would be.

"I understand if you don't feel the same way-"

"I love you too Zack…" Aerith interrupted him smiling widely and kissing him again and again. Aerith placed her hands on his cheeks to hold his lips against hers. The cold, the rain, their wet bodies didn't matter; nothing could stop them from kissing.

He liked her more than just a friend after all. Suddenly Aerith's fears vanished into thin air. She was in his arms, he loved her back. She knew then being together wouldn't ruin their friendship it would only make it stronger. Nothing would break them apart except for one thing they could never have guessed. But that night everything was perfect.

He was the one falling from the sky and yet when he opened his eyes to see where he had landed he claimed to have seen an angel. After Zack had taken her home at 6 in the morning Aerith lay down on her bed grinning like she had never grinned before in her life. _I look like a six-year-old child with a brand new toy._ She thought and laughed at herself from how silly she looked like being there on her bed chuckling at the ceiling. _Stop that._ She told herself, but the smile didn't vanish from her lips. She raised one hand to cover her mouth and laughed a bit more. _What is happening to me? _She rested her hand on her forehead. But she knew exactly what was happening to her. She was slowly but deeply falling more and more in love with Zack Fair.

The slums were hectic with the winter fair. Whenever the fair was held it seemed like everyone inside Midgar would go there. There were colourful small tents everywhere exposing different varieties of items some more eccentric than the next ones. Each of the tents had light bulbs of all colours illuminating them to draw attention. It wasn't exactly the fanciest of the fairs but it did gather a lot of people who were looking for collection items or even objects with smaller prices whether it would be weapons, wood-made figurines, materia, clothes, everything was there. There were even fortune tellers with crystal balls, hand-readers and card readers as well. Aerith pulled Zack towards the popcorn tent and got them a bucket of sweet ones with different colours. She smiled happily as he picked one from the top ones in the bucket and lifted it to her lips so she could eat it.

"Where do you want to go next?" Zack asked laughing as she had dropped one popcorn from trying to take it from his fingers to her mouth.

"Hummm…" Aerith giggled looking around. "I want to see that table over there!" She pointed at one table covered with a blue blanket which had different kinds of ribbons on it. Approaching the table Aerith looked excitedly at the ribbons until her eyes paused to stare at a silky pink one that stood out from all of the others in her eyes.

"Do you like that one?" Zack asked noticing how her eyes glowed looking at it.

"Yes!" She nodded. "But I don't really need it." She said sadly thinking she couldn't afford it.

"Ribbons are never enough." Zack smiled at her and pulled out his wallet from his pocket.

"What are you doing? I don't want you to buy it." Aerith widened her eyes at him.

"Can't a boyfriend buy his girlfriend a present anymore?" Zack asked ignoring her and already taking out 50 gil to hand to the seller who took it and thanked Zack. "Here." He helped Aerith tie the ribbon to her pony tail.

"How do I look?" She turned to Zack tilting her head right and left.

"Beautiful." Zack said lifting her chin up with his fingers and leaning in to kiss her lips. Aerith couldn't stop looking into his eyes as he smiled warmly down at her.

"Thank you Zack." She said. "Let's go to the fortune teller now!" Aerith pulled him by the hand.

"You know I don't believe in that stuff…" Zack sighed while he was being dragged between the crowded streets.

"It's just for fun!" Aerith turned to reply. "There, the card reader!" Aerith pointed to a tent covered in dark blue curtains decorated with silver stars along the fabric. On top of the tent was the name of the fortune teller in flashing bright letters: "Caith Sith."

"Hello!" Aerith greeted getting inside the tent. The fortune teller was a cat on top of a huge moogle white suit. The cat greeted them as well and motioned for Aerith to take a sit across the table she had the spread deck of cards on. Aerith sat down while Zack remained standing behind Aerith's chair. "Can you read my fortune?"

"I'm going to scatter all of the cards and join them in one single deck and I need you to cut the deck in two with your right hand." Caith Sith instructed and Aerith did as she was told cutting the deck of cards in two. "Very well. Now let me draw them onto my table and I'll be able to tell you your fortune in one minute."

"Thank you." Aerith couldn't help giggling, she had never experimented those kinds of things before so she felt a little nervous while waiting.

"Hummm…. Hummm…" Caith Sith kept purring as she drew the cards one by one onto the table. "I have bad news and good news." She finally spoke. "See this card right here, the Lovers, is upright which means harmony and union between your loved one and you. But it also means you will have difficult decisions to make in the near future. The Fool came out upright as well meaning new beginnings leading to happiness."

"So far so good!" Aerith smiled.

"Not so fast young lady." Caith Sith sighed. "The Strength card came out reversed… which means pessimism or defeat. Usually when this card comes out reversed followed by two positive cards it points to something that will happen in your life that will bring you down taking away all of your happiness and leaving you unwilling to live. This card here is telling me you will have a hard time with your partner but then this one is leading towards a change in your life."

"Enough with the nonsense." Zack glared at the fortune teller. "You should not believe in any of these things Aerith. They just want to make easy money."

"Caith Sith's foresight is no lie!" The cat said exaltedly. "And keep your money… You should worry about your girlfriend she will suffer because of you."

"Let's get out of here Aerith." Zack grabbed her hand and they walked outside. Aerith looked back and the fortune teller a couple of times before closing the curtains of the tent once outside. Zack was right she should not believe those things but then… why was she feeling suffocated by her words? Did that mean something was about to happen to Zack that would leave her devastated? Her heart could no longer rest.

"Hey…" Zack's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Don't believe in any word that crazy cat said ok? It's nothing but a bunch of lies! Nothing will keep us apart." Zack placed his arms around her shoulders holding her tightly to his chest. He pushed her slowly away and leaned down to kiss her lips. "Let's go find a good place to see the fireworks shall we?"

Aerith nodded and they walked away from the crowds of people and into the park, their park which was deserted, to watch the fireworks that were about to start.

"Hey what's wrong?" Zack lifted her chin up with his hand. He had noticed she was staring down to the ground.

"Nothing…" Aerith lied. "Well actually I was thinking about the fortune teller."

"Aerith stop thinking about it! Those things are all lies. I promise I will always be by your side." Zack stared into her eyes and a second later the sky was illuminated with red, yellow, green and white lights exploding into thousands of sparkles of the same colours showering the dark night. The sound blasts of the fireworks made Aerith blink but Zack held her face between his hands comforting her. He had never in his whole life seen anything as beautiful as those fireworks reflected in her eyes.

February had finally arrived and they soon forgot about the premonition the fortune teller had warned them…The following day was going to be her birthday. She had told him that once but she didn't know if he remembered it so she was hoping he didn't have any missions due to that day so they could do something together, she had thought maybe they could go out and have dinner somewhere. Maybe they could go up the plate into the city.

"Where are we going?" Aerith asked walking hand in hand with him through the slums streets. Zack was uncommonly quite that night. He just kept walking in front of her leading the way. "Something happened?"

"No…" He simply answered; his eyes were covered by his dark hair making them shadowy so she couldn't really tell how he was feeling. Suddenly she realized they were taking an elevator to the city above the plate. There was no need to tell him anything after all. She had lost track of how long they had been walking through the streets of Midgar when they finally stopped in front of a double-door glass entrance to some building.

"This is where I live when I'm not in Shinra." He said entering the building's lobby and pressing the elevator's button.

"Oh!" Aerith was taken aback by the information. The elevator made a single bell sound and came to a stop. They walked through the corridor passing by the other doors until they reached 8th floor, door D.

"This is my apartment." Zack took out his keys. "But I need you to cover your eyes first, I have a surprise." He told her and she giggled covering her eyes with her hands. She felt his gentle hands pushing her slowly into the apartment. But then she felt his lips caressing the bottom of her neck and she heard him mumbling that she could open her eyes now. As she did, she was standing in his living room but in front of her were sliding glass to-the-floor windows opened and revealing a terrace illuminated by candle lights and in its middle stood a well arranged table ready for dinner to be served.

"Zack this looks beautiful!" Aerith opened her mouth in awe. She didn't know what drew him to do that if her birthday was only the next day.

"I thought we could spend the night together. This midnight will be your birthday right?"

"Yes but… I thought we could go out tomorrow…"

"Let's enjoy our dinner now." She could almost guess he was avoiding telling her something but she didn't know what it could possibly be so she let it go. He pulled out her chair so she could sit down. She had been right about her supposition, Zack didn't talk much during dinner because he was definitely hiding something from her or trying to find the right words to tell her something. After dinner was over Zack took her to the small wall protecting the edge of the terrace. They could see the whole sector from there, the buildings, the lights coming from the windows and the theatre with posters of the play "Loveless" on its walls.

"Is there something you want to tell me Zack?" Aerith finally had the courage to ask him.

"How did you know?" Zack stared into the nothingness thoughtfully.

"You were awfully quiet the whole night and I would love to know the reason why."

"Aerith I…" He started before taking a deep breath and turning to look at her. "I have to go away tomorrow."

"Where?"

"I'm going on a mission, a big one. I don't know for how long I will be gone."

"That's why you picked me up to have dinner tonight right?" Aerith looked down. "You couldn't be with me tomorrow."

"Yes…"

"It's ok!" She tried to smile. "You will keep in touch with me right?"

"Of course! When I can!" He assured her but he himself couldn't tell when he would be able to contact her. Against her will, Aerith's eyes started watering, she didn't want to look weak in front of him but she had the feeling that his departure this time would be the longest time away. "Please don't cry." He cleaned her eyes with the back of his fingers.

"I'm being silly I'm sorry." Aerith shook her head. "But I will miss you so much."

"I know… me too…" Zack said kissing her forehead. "Do you think you can sleep here with me tonight? It's ok if you can't I just wanted to spend as much time as I can with you before I lea-"

"Close your mouth soldier." Aerith interrupted placing one finger on his lips. "Of course I'll spend the night with you." She whispered before she started kissing him slowly turning it into a more passionate kiss. She didn't care if she had to go home; all she wanted was to stay in his arms.

"Happy Birthday Aerith." Zack whispered in her ear when the clock turned midnight. He slid the thin stripe of her pink dress down and kissed her softly on the smooth bare skin of her shoulder pulling her carefully against him while he laid her down on his bed under his body.

That was the last time Aerith saw Zack.

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**Note: **Thank you so much for reading and please tell me what you think about it, it really helps me a lot. I really hope you liked this first part**.**


	2. Hope

**Love, Aerith**

**Chapter 2**: Hope

It had been two years since Aerith last saw Zack. Her birthday had been forever marked as the day of his departure making Aerith not want to celebrate it anymore in her life. Her 17th and 18th birthdays had been passed in her bedroom crying her eyes out curled up between her sheets. Her mother would leave her present on top of her desk closing the door behind her with a concerned sigh and a helpless shake of her head. Elmyra had lost count of the times she tried telling Aerith she couldn't stay like that forever, that she would have to eventually let go but the only answer she would get from her daughter was a low "Please leave…".

Ever since Aerith stopped getting messages from _him, _a few months after _he_ had left, the colour of her cheeks had started to fade away from her face and the smiles that once graced her face were becoming a thing of the past. Elmyra couldn't even remember the last time she heard Aerith laugh. It seemed like life was slowly being drained out of her body. The only joy the young woman had was the time she spent taking care of the flowers she kept inside the slums' church, those same ones that had broken _his_ fall a while ago. Time passed slowly and painfully but she would always be waiting for _him_ to return. The next day, Elmyra would wake her up watching as the present she had left her remained untouched exactly at the same place she had put it on.

She missed him and that feeling was suffocating. Her chest wanted to be able to breathe freely but there was a sense of weight on it that wouldn't allow that.

At night and because there were nights Aerith couldn't sleep even if she tried to, she would stare out the window of her bedroom waiting for _him_ to come with a few pebbles in _his_ hand to try to wake her up. She would eagerly stare at the end of the street waiting for any sign of movement hoping to see _his_ spiky black hair and muscled silhouette appearing; she would just stay there waiting for _him_ to show up. But _he_ never did.

Another year had passed when finally hope came. She held one glass of milk in her hand one morning going to sit at the kitchen table when she noticed a white envelope laying there. Elmyra had probably left it there for her to read since it was destined to her. Aerith's heart started pounding as she read on the left upper corner of the envelope who the letter was from: "Shinra Inc.".

Her mind raced as she remembered one conversation she once had had with _him_. She could still hear _his_ voice in her head saying that she was _his_ contact if anything was to happen to _him_ while on a mission, even if that was very unlikely to occur. Aerith quickly shook her head. It couldn't possibly… could it? Her hands were tremulous as she opened the envelope and unfolded the white paper containing black computer-typed letters written in it.

Her eyes immediately started watering as she read the words:

_Miss Aerith,_

_We are deeply sorry to inform you SOLDIER first class Zack Fair has died in battle. _

There was no need to continue reading the rest of the words the letter held. Aerith dropped to her knees accidentally hitting the kitchen table which balanced causing the glass of milk to fall down onto the floor in a loud shatter. Hearing the sharp noise of glass breaking Aerith wondered what a glass of milk was doing there broken on the floor. Suddenly everything was a blur and she felt light-headed, the world was spinning around her. She didn't know for how long she stayed there kneeled on the floor, the letter still in her hand. The tears were leaving a warm trace of water on her cheeks and she looked blankly at them falling from her chin and blending into the fabric of her pink dress, the one _he _had always loved to see her wear. The pain inside her chest was just too much.

She heard her mother's voice muffled in the distance calling her name but when she finally looked up Elmyra was right in front of her. When sound finally returned to her ears she heard her mother shouting her name. Aerith's blank stare finally focused on her face. She noticed as her mother's hands were shaking her shoulders trying to bring her daughter back to senses. Aerith watched the despair in her mother's eyes and couldn't help feeling sorry for her. She didn't deserve to be worried like that.

"He…" Aerith tried to speak noticing how her voice came out in a rough whisper. "He's gone." She swallowed hard and Elmyra held her daughter in her arms until the sobbing started lessening and her eyes dried out of tears. Aerith fell asleep wishing that she would forever.

Every since that day Aerith devotedly lit a candle in her church in _his_ honour whispering a prayer for _him_. One year after that day that was exactly what she was doing in the church when she heard a thunderous bang coming from the ceiling. A cracking noise the sound of wood breaking echoed through the church's walls. She looked up in time to see someone falling down from above to loudly crash onto her flower bed… yet again.

At first, Aerith just stood there speechless looking down at the man laying with arms stretched to the side on the ground. She noticed his chest moved shallowly up and down which meant he was still alive though hurting a little bit probably. She found herself wondering there was something about that hole in the ceiling. The flower bed must be fortunately placed there.

Her eyes widened then as soon as she attentively looked at the uniform the man was wearing. It looked like the same one _he_ used to wear. It was still too painful to think about _him_. The man moaned and he looked like he was in pain from the fall although he hadn't regained consciousness.

"Hey…" Aerith called crouching beside him. The young man who she guessed was about the same age as her started moving his head. He could probably hear her. "Can you hear me?" She asked.

"Yeah…" The man had blond spiky hair and as he answered his eyes remained closed.

"Are you alright? Can you move?" Aerith asked and her hand lifted to touch his shoulder but she hesitated keeping it still in the air.

The man slowly opened his eyes and the next thing she knew Aerith was looking into two deep blue glimmering eyes. The colour she had known from one person only and that she thought there couldn't possibly be another person in the world who had them the same. She gasped as that blue gaze stared confusedly back at her.

"I'm sorry…" He finally broke the silence noticing that one of her hands softly caressed the petals of one wrinkled flower he had stepped on. Aerith couldn't explain why her heart was jumping as she looked at the man dressed in that so familiar black uniform. Her heart thumped deafeningly against her chest as she looked into those piercing blue aquamarine eyes. He reminded her so much of _him_, that had to be it.

"You don't have to seriously." Aerith stubbornly shook her head when he proposed taking her home to make up for the damage he had caused to her flowers.

"Please it's the least I can do." Cloud, as he had introduced himself, insisted. "Plus, it's almost dark… The streets get dangerous."

There it was again, the same protectiveness toward her that _he_ used to show as well.

"Is that some kind of signature SOLDIERS have? Protect the damsels in distress?" Aerith couldn't help letting it out. She hated that she looked weak; she hated having to be protected.

"I was just trying to pay you back from helping me back then." Cloud could sense the tension emanating from the girl he had just met.

"I really didn't do anything. My flower bed did." She wondered if she was being a little hard on him but she couldn't help feeling a little edgy.

"Exactly. _Your_ flower bed."

Aerith realized she was already leading them towards her house through the streets of Midgar as they walked side by side. There was no way escaping him taking her home. The rest of the way both of them kept silent just hearing their random steps scratching on the dirty pavement below.

Cloud was intrigued by that girl, he was usually not that pushing when he clearly was not welcomed but there was something in her that told him he couldn't stay away.

"Here we are! You really didn't have to, but thank you." Aerith stopped at last in front of the gate to her house. It was different from all the Midgar others, with a red roof, green shutters and a tiny garden up front down the stairs. By the faint post light illuminating the quiet street Aerith noticed how his perfect white skin reflected the orange light. She got a glimpse of those eyes again, two shimmering blue sapphires glowing by the faint illumination. She didn't know what to say mostly due to the fact that she was taken aback by how those two Ocean-blue eyes reminded her so much of _his_…

"You're welcome." Cloud was surprised as the corner of his lips curved up into a tiny smile. He wasn't used to smiling...

Aerith turned to leave when a soft but firm hand grabbed her by the wrist.

"Wait…" Cloud didn't let go of her hand although he noticed as his touch made her shudder and her arm automatically slanted to get free. "Listen… Can I meet you again tomorrow?" Cloud asked himself why he was doing that.

"Why…?" Aerith sighed closing her eyes as her face was turned away from his gaze.

"I keep getting the feeling you need me." Cloud let go of her hand and her arm rested along her stiffened body. Aerith opened her mouth to reply but what could she possibly answer to that?

"I can't tomorrow." Aerith finally had the courage to face him.

"Ok then, the next day." He insisted turning around to walk away before she could retort.

_Great... _Aerith exhaled and opened the door. Closing it, she rested her forehead on the wooden vertical surface. Maybe the memory of _him_ was still too present in her mind that she was afraid to get close to someone else even if Cloud only wanted to be friends with her. After all, he had told her he was in Midgar to stay. She wanted to stop wanting to live in the past where _he_ was. She had lost count of the times she had told herself she had to move on. But Cloud reminded her so much of _him_ that she was sure it would make things harder for her to try to forget. If she was actually willing to forget. Who was this man that right on the first day he had met her told her she needed him?

_What the hell was that?_ Cloud asked himself while he walked through the deserted dark street. Sure she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Sure she looked like she was about to fall into pieces any minute. Sure she also had the saddest eyes he had ever seen one carry. But what did he have to do with it? Apparently the voice inside his head that was telling him to stay close to that girl had gone mad for good.

Cloud kept his word and one day after their first encounter he stood outside her gate waiting to see the brunette come out from the door. When she finally did he watched in amusement as her cheeks turned slightly pink and her hands started shaking once she reached for the door knob to pull it and close the door behind her.

Part of Aerith wished he wouldn't turn up that day but there was another part of her and she didn't know how big that part was that secretly hoped to see him there. She had no idea what he saw in her, what made him ask her if he could see her again but after given much thought about it she finally decided to give him a try. After all, it wasn't his fault she had no will to live. He couldn't have guessed her heart was broken in endless tiny little pieces that could no longer be glued together not even with the strongest of the glues. But she had decided it couldn't hurt her to at least try to make a new friend. Maybe he could distract her from wandering around the past so much.

* * *

Cloud told her that he used to be a SOLDIER until he decided to settle down somewhere for a while. He became a mercenary doing some errands whenever he was called to. Aerith didn't rest her heart hearing that because she had the feeling those errands Cloud claimed to do weren't the cleaner ones and Cloud refused to tell her details about his work. At least he wouldn't be out on missions all the time like _he _used to be. For the following couple of months Cloud and Aerith started meeting almost everyday since Cloud lived nearby.

"Isn't that like downgrading? Going from SOLDIER to mercenary?" Aerith once asked as they took a walk.

"Not exactly. Only first class SOLDIERS are allowed to become mercenaries. It requires a certain level of experience. It's kind of the same but we don't move all the time and the missions aren't quite as dangerous because we're already veterans you see." Cloud answered intrigued by her sudden interest on the subject.

"Do you like what you do?" Aerith dared to ask preparing herself for his answer.

"Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't." Cloud replied shrugging. "It's a tough job."

Aerith stopped walking to stare at him in disbelief.

"What?" Cloud let out a little chuckle amused by the look in her face. Her emerald green eyes were wide open and her mouth was pressed in a firm thin line. There was a slight pink colouring her cheeks.

"I thought you were going to say you loved your job."

"Why would I do that? I'm not proud of some things I've done."

"You just… you surprise me." Aerith turned away from his gaze embarrassed. "I thought all Shinra men were ruthless fighting machines."

"Where did you hear that?" Cloud slightly laughed at her comparison. "I still have a conscious."

"Never mind…" Aerith bit her lower lip. "It's getting late, I should head home." Aerith heard Cloud call her name but she was already running like the wind in the direction of her house which wasn't that far from where they had been standing. That seemed like a relief for her since he didn't feel the need of taking her home. Cloud was different from _him_. How could she have even compared the two? That wasn't fair. They were two unique persons, each one with their own specific personalities and reactions. How could two people that looked exactly the same be so different from each other? But as she ran home that day feeling her heart beating fast Aerith realized another thing, she hadn't forgotten _him _yet, not even close, but there was something in her changing. She felt that when she was with Cloud she was close to _him_.

There wasn't much to do around Midgar except maybe drinking in the numerous bars it had. But that wasn't much of a habit to Cloud and Aerith. There was a theatre that had the same play showing since Aerith could remember and an old cinema still working. Aerith cursed the day he had asked her to go to the cinema.

"Say… do you want to do something fun tonight?" Cloud asked scratching the back of his head nervously. Aerith was a shy girl but Cloud beat her to that at times. He had a quiet personality and he didn't talk about his feelings much. Aerith wondered sometimes if something had happened in Cloud's life that had marked him good. She had caught him once staring thoughtfully into space, completely lost in his thoughts to hear her speak. She was glad that he wasn't much of an asking person. He told her one day that he knew there was something making her sad but when she was ready she would tell him. And then there was the "fun" subject. Aerith couldn't remember the last time she had had fun. Or more like, she did remember and it was painful to think about it.

"Like what?" She asked lifting one eyebrow.

"I don't know… we could go to the cinema." Cloud suggested.

"Humm…"

"I won't take no for an answer."

"Then I don't have much choice do I?" And Aerith smiled at him, she smiled thankful to him to try to cheer her up; she smiled for the effort he was making in hanging out with her even though she wasn't much of a great company. As Cloud watched her smile, a little tiny crook of her lips he noticed that since he had met her four months ago he had never seen her smile. He made a personal note to himself that his new goal was to see that smile many more times from that moment on.

Aerith stood in front of her bed looking at the two dresses she had selected to wear that night and wondering why on Gaia she had agreed to go to the cinema with him. He had promised her it wasn't a date, that it was just a casual encounter of two friends wanting to have fun. _Friends_. She had been able to make a friend. Then, if they were just friends, why was she taking so much time to decide what she was going to wear? She shook her head and sighed softly picking up a white one with no further a due.

"That was… interesting." Cloud sighed as they left through the cinema doors and into the street. They had chosen to see an action movie about a group of people trying to save the world.

"They always save the day…" Aerith smiled as they walked. Now that she had learned what it was to smile again, she promised herself she would do it more often, for Cloud. She noticed he was staring kindly back at her chuckling. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"Yes. A beautiful smile." He answered and that took Aerith by surprise. She couldn't hold it in and let out a clear delighted laugh.

"I'm sorry Cloud but that was such a lame line." She mocked him and he couldn't help but smile. He had made her laugh even if she had just hurt his feelings.

"It was supposed to be sincere." But Cloud didn't mind. He finally got to see her laugh. Her eyes semi closed into two tiny curves and her cheeks brightened up with colour. It was worth watching he thought to himself as he kept looking at her with a kind smile. He couldn't help feeling drawn to her, her generous sweet personality was so captivating even if there was a dark side in her she didn't allow him in. Suddenly the street fell silent, there was no one around and only the white bulbs of light from the cinema advertisement illuminated the alley. The uncomfortable silence made them look at each other for one long moment.

He didn't know what got into him but he felt an impulsive need for her touch. Her lips were a light pink and he wondered if they would taste as smooth as they looked like in his eyes. He slowly backed her against the wall placing the palms of his opened hands on it while trapping her between his stretched arms. He closed in on her and she felt his knees softly brushing the top of hers.

"Why do you keep running away from me?" He breezily asked and she felt his sugary warm breath on the tip of her nose leaving her bewildered. His voice was smooth and deep at the same time, so inviting.

"I'm… not." She gasped lightly, closing her eyes. His chest pressed softly against hers and she felt her head dizzy while her cheeks warmed. She could feel his heart beating so close to hers, synchronized although hers was beating a little faster. Their lips were so close to each others she could feel the tingling sensation of proximity. She waited for his touch. She waited for his lips to tenderly kiss hers but they never did. She slowly opened her eyes to see him looking down at her, his eyes were curious and at the same time… was that sadness? It was then she understood why he didn't go for the kiss, why he just kept staring at her. She was crying. She could feel the warm string of water on her cheeks and it terrified her.

He distanced himself one step away from her, his arms dropping gracefully along side his body.

"Cloud… I…" Aerith started.

"I'm sorry..." He said embarrassed at his actions, maybe he had been too fast forward. "I don't want to force you into anything." Cloud lifted his hand up to wipe the wet trace the tears had left on her skin. "I promise I will try to stay away."

"NO! Please don't." Aerith shook her head anxiously. "You're the reason I'm here… I realized that when I'm with you I forget about everything else. When I'm with you… I can be happy. Please don't leave me. Not again."

"What do you mean not again?" Cloud asked confused.

"Cloud… I have to tell you something."

That night the stars were shining brightly on the dark night sky above the city, if only they could see the sky from where they were standing.

* * *

**Note:** I'm sorry for the late update, I have been on vacation but now that I'm back I tried posting as soon as I could. I hope you liked this chapter. I haven't written anything about Cloud and Aerith for such a long time that I think I lost the touch.. Thank you for reading!


	3. Fireworks

**Love, Aerith**

**Chapter 3:** Fireworks

_Dear Aerith,_

_First of all I'm really sorry I haven't been able to reply to you sooner but things have been quite hectic lately. We have moved from Wutai and are headed to Nibelheim, a small town in the mountains. We have some things we need to investigate there, boring stuff._

_How long __has it been? Six months since I left…I still don't know when I'll be able to come back to Midgar but as soon as I find out the first thing I'll do is let you know. Or who knows, maybe someday sooner than you think I'll pop out of nowhere and tap on your window to surprise you. Until then, please wait for me, I promise I'll come back for you._

_I miss you._

_Yours truly,_

_Zack _

Aerith neatly folded the letter in her hands and put it back inside the envelope. She cleaned the tears out of her eyes and tried to smile as she breathed in the scent of the paper she was holding as if trying to find a trace of his smell in it, the faintest as it could be. But of course it was no use. There was nothing in there that smelled like Zack.

That had been the last letter she got from him.

* * *

"At first… It bothered me how you two looked exactly alike." Aerith sat on the bench from the Midgar sand park. She hadn't been there for a long time and it felt strange to her, sitting there without _him_ next to her. It felt even stranger to be sitting there, on their bench, next to Cloud. "Everything in you reminded me of him… The way you talk, gestures, even how you walk. Every time I looked at you, I saw him."

Cloud remained silent, just listening to her speaking and he didn't look at her as she spoke, he just kept staring forward avoiding her gaze.

"But then… I realized just how different you were." Aerith looked up at the night sky with a tiny smile on her face remembering the good times she had spent with _him_ on that same park. "Things are different now. Because, now when I look at you, I don't see him anymore." She turned to face him, her eyes were filled with tears as he noticed them glittering by the faint light illuminating the park, but the smile was still on her lips.

"You're much more than what I see in the surface and I'm searching for you Cloud. Things are much different than what I thought in the beginning. I didn't want to be around you because I was afraid I couldn't let go of him. I know it was very unfair for you. But I couldn't help feeling this way. I really truly loved him." Aerith sobbed and cleaned her eyes letting out a soft laughter. "I was so silly. I was so chained to him that I didn't see what was in front of my eyes. You, not him. But I see you now, Cloud. And I want to meet you. I want to forget about everything and start over. I'm sorry for what I've done."

"You don't have to apologize for anything." Cloud said smoothly, his voice was soft, understanding. "Maybe I was going too fast. I should apologize to you and not otherwise."

"You had no idea what was going on inside me." Aerith shook her head. "But I couldn't imagine that you..." _Had feelings for m_e...She thought to herself.

"To tell you the truth… I don't know what got into me as well." Cloud spoke not turning to look at her. "I never felt this way for a girl before. Ever." He paused for one moment just thinking and Aerith looked down biting her lower lip apprehensively. _So this is what was bothering her. Such a beautiful smile hiding a troubled soul. _He thought silently_._

"What happened to him?" Cloud was curious to know.

"He left to go on a mission. He was a SOLDIER first class just like you." More tears came pouring down her green eyes. "When he stopped writing to me I imagined the most surreal things had happened. He had found someone else better than me, he just lost interest, I don't know, but it was killing me little by little inside. He had been gone for two years when I finally heard he had been killed. He was my first love. It was really hard to accept that he was gone. Almost two years later here I am again. Miserable. I didn't want to believe it was true, that he had… died."

"I see…" Cloud wanted to wipe away the tears from her cheeks. It hurt him seeing her eyes sore, puffy and red from her fingers brushing against the bottom of her eyes to clean the tears. But what could he do? He had never been in a situation close to that. But he understood her pain, he had lost someone dear to him as well not so long ago. "What was his name? It's ok if you don't want to tell me." He didn't want to hurt her anymore.

"Zack. Zack Fair." She said and she realized in surprise it was the first time in almost four years she had spoken his name out loud.

"What?" Cloud whispered in shock, his face turned pale as bone. His eyes widened as he looked petrified at Aerith. His blood seemed to freeze inside him and his head was feeling a little dizzy. His whole body stiffened and in an impulse he got up from his seat, away from her.

"What's wrong?" Aerith asked confused.

"It can't be…" Cloud gasped.

"_I have someone waiting for me back home."_ Cloud could still hear Zack's words in his head and when he spoke about that person it was as if his face brightened up with happiness in a huge grin.

"It was you." Cloud's voice came out shakily and he looked blankly at the floor seeing his friend's face in his mind. "I knew Zack. He was in my squad. No… Aerith we were friends… I can't." He looked at her and their eyes met, both becoming aware of what was going to happen.

"Cloud…" Aerith's voice was pleading. Everything was running fast through her head. Cloud had known Zack.

"He was my friend. We had been through so much together. He helped me so many times and he used to talk a lot about you." Cloud shook his head and exhaled looking down at the floor. "I didn't know who you were… I just listened to him talking about his girlfriend. You."

Aerith got up from her seat to stand in front of him.

"I can't… be with you." And those words that he had just pronounced burned through his throat stinging his tongue and mouth. He didn't want to stay away from her but knowing how Zack had loved her and having heard her say how much she had loved him back, even if it had been a long time ago… "I'm not Zack… I can't even compare to him… and I could never do this to him." Zack was everything Cloud had hoped he could be and more than being his friend Cloud looked up to him. _I could never compete with Zack… If I stay with you, I'll just be disappointing. _He didn't say out loud.

"Cloud." She touched his arm with her hand and he felt her skin brushing softly against his.

"I'm sorry Aerith…" He whispered looking away. "But I don't think we should keep meeting." Slowly he turned around noticing her hand sliding away from his arm. _What are you doing?_

He stood there motionless imagining her face; he couldn't stand to look at her. If he did he wouldn't be able to control himself to how much he wanted to hold her in his arms. But they couldn't be together. As he had his back to her he wished he had never met this flower girl because if he hadn't he wouldn't have hurt her that way. He wished he had been killed instead of Zack. He had this girl so devotedly waiting for him to return and instead, she only got more pain. It wasn't fair to her, to Zack and to him because… it was already too late. He had fallen in love with her.

"Don't go…" Her voice made his heart crash into pieces inside of his chest. He didn't want to go but what choice did he have? "You… have become the reason for me to let go of the past… and keep living."

What she didn't know was that she had helped him find a will to live too. His head was spinning. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her feelings again. He had been able to make her talk about what was troubling her, he had practically confessed his feelings for her, he had tried to kiss her and now he was backing away. But it mattered. Being Zack Fair her first love mattered. He had helped Cloud so many times during his missions, they had grown a strong friendship in the battlefield and out that he couldn't just ignore the fact that Aerith had been the girl he so many times talked about when they had time to rest. It wouldn't sound right to be with her.

He had been present when Zack was killed. Their last mission and the reason Cloud decided to leave SOLDIER. The image of him being shot several times in the chest was still so vivid in his mind he had to firmly shut his eyes to try to erase it.

"Talk to me…" Her voice pleaded again faintly. "Let me in." She said trying to reach him through his silence.

"Things would have been better if it had been me… the day Zack—"

"Don't say that!" Aerith interrupted him. He heard her sob and the sound of her crying pierced through his heart again.

"I'm sorry Aerith…" He whispered before walking away from her into the night. He hated himself more with each step he took. Aerith dropped to her knees and bent down her head looking at her hands pressing the ground beneath her.

_Not again…_

* * *

_Everything is so confusing at the moment. _

"Aren't you going to the fair?" Elmyra asked her daughter when they sat down at the kitchen table to have dinner that night. Aerith had forgotten it was already time for the winter fair.

"I don't see the point on going by myself …" Aerith answered. She didn't have anyone to go with and she couldn't stand going to the middle of a crowd of people alone. She would feel even lonelier.

"What about that new boy you used to go out with? I haven't seen him around anymore." Elmyra asked.

"We just… we drifted apart." Aerith stopped eating to stare blankly at her soup plate. It had been almost one month since that night Cloud and she talked about Zack. "I'm going to the church for a while ok?" She rose from her chair and picked up her plate to place it in the sink.

"To the church? But it's night time! Aren't you going to finish eating?" Her mother insisted.

"I'm not hungry… And I might watch the fireworks from there."

"You're not climbing roofs again are you?" Aerith heard her mother's voice call to her as she reached the entrance door.

_Mothers…_ She rolled her eyes. "Don't worry! I'll be careful!" She raised her voice to reply and closed the door behind her as she left.

She walked into the church, the silence didn't scare her anymore, she had gotten used to being alone there. Reaching the altar past her flower bed she noticed the candle she had burning in Zack's memory was still lit on a shelf nailed to the wall. She looked at the small flame burning and the orange color dancing hypnotized her eyes. The more she stared into the tiny fire the more she wanted to be lost inside of it. She wanted that tiny flame to engulf her and take her away.

Suddenly she was interrupted by the sound of blasting fireworks coming from the sky. The cracks on the wooden roof of the church allowed her to see the colourful sparkles erupting.

There was a door to the left of where she was standing that led to the stairs up to the upper floor of the church. She climbed them and slid through a hole between the cracks of the roof. She stood up on the quivering wooden boards of the rooftop and closed her eyes feeling the soft breeze brushing her skin and waving her hair. Another blast in the sky and thousands of sparkling lights showered down through the dark sky.

She smiled. The fireworks were beautiful and from where she was standing she could see the lights reflected in the many roofs of the houses of Midgar. She sat down on the boards watching the show.

"Hey…" A voice she so well knew interrupted her from her dazzled stare at the sky. "You almost gave me a heart-attack."

"Why?" She turned her head to meet a pair of blazing blue eyes shimmering by the lights exploding.

"I saw you standing here." Cloud came out from the hole on the roof, the same one he had fallen into a few months ago and sat next to her resting his arms on his bended knees. "You made my blood freeze and I think I stopped breathing for a minute when I was climbing the stairs."

"You thought I was going to fall down the roof?" She giggled.

"Well… yeah."

"I've been coming here my whole life." Aerith turned her eyes to the sky.

"You scared me." Cloud followed her gaze.

"Cloud… What are you doing here?" She asked.

There was a moment of silence between them.

"I came here to find you." He answered at last. "I thought at lot about everything and… Aerith… I want to be with you. Even if it means we'll be just friends. That is, if you let me. If you can forgive me."

"What's there to forgive?"

"I left."

"You came back." Aerith turned to look at him and smiled. "You're here now."

"But I don't want to disappoint you…" Cloud looked down. "I'm not… Zack."

"That's right, you're not." Aerith lifted his chin up with her hand. "Every time I'll remember Zack will be with care. He is just a happy memory now that I'll treasure in my heart. You're here Cloud. And you were able to bring me back to the surface from the darkness I was drowning myself into. You made me happy again. You'll never be a disappointment and I'm glad you're different from him…"

They both stared silently at the flashing sky to look at the final fireworks blasting noisily in the night. They both knew Zack wasn't going to be forgotten, he would remain inside their hearts as the person they both had met and loved once. But it had come the time they had to let go and move on with their lives. They knew Zack would have liked that; Zack would have wanted them to be happy.

Before leaving the church that night, Aerith went back to the place where the little candle was still softly burning. She looked at it wave for a couple of seconds and then she blew it gently until the flame had vanished.

_Goodnight Zack._

* * *

**Note:** Thank you so much for reading!! I hope you liked this chapter!!


	4. This Feeling

**Love, Aerith**

**Chapter 4: **This Feeling

Aerith sighed impatiently looking at the screen of her cell-phone where the message "I'll be back in two days, some important mission has come up." could be read. She shook her head closing her eyes. _That's what you get for hanging around with SOLDIERS,_ she mused to herself. She cared for Cloud more than what she wanted to care and was already too much involved in his life not to worry every time he went on a mission. She had learned her lesson already but it was still hard. She let her back fall on her bed and laid there looking at the ceiling wondering if she should answer him saying she would be waiting. She rolled on her stomach and started typing different kinds of messages to send him, but she kept deleting them.

"Ok, I'll be waiting for you when you come back." She typed and deleted.

"I'll be praying for your safety." She typed, crinkled her nose and deleted it.

"Two days? Are you kidding me? The mission or me! You decide!" She typed, laughed aloud and then deleted it.

"Fine." She typed and thought it would be too harsh which she ended up deleting. Half an hour later she gave up thinking what she should send him and finally opted for a "Be careful please." She snapped her phone shut and rested her forehead on her pink bedcovers. The answer came almost too quickly and when her phone beeped she quickly snapped it back open and eagerly read the message Cloud sent.

"I will. Don't worry." He had written. She stared at the screen for a couple of minutes before snapping back to reality.

"Yeah… As if I could not be worried." She exhaled sadly and fell asleep moments later.

_Cloud ran fast with his sword on his hands, slashing monsters all around him that kept appearing out of thin air. His forehead was frowned and his eyes were focused, his muscles tightened when he was fighting. But the monsters were only too many when they surrounded him and soon she stopped seeing him from under the pile of hideous creatures on top of him. She tried screaming his name but it came out a suffocating gasp. _

_When the pile of monsters lifted with who was under it, monsters went flying in all directions. She looked at the man appearing from under them and she saw his spiky black hair and glazing blue eyes covered in blood. She widened her eyes__ and struggled for air as she desperately looked again at the man in front of her. It was Cloud she saw this time, blood rushing out from his forehead to his neck, arms were bruised, his clothes ragged on the chest. _

_His __huge sword slipped from his hand and plunged to the floor in a loud thud. He lifted his hand to cover a wound on his shoulder and dropped to his knees while looking at her. His eyes were wide-open and his expression was painful, his lips slightly parted. The red color of his blood was so vivid it made her panic. _

"CLOUD!" Aerith screamed sitting up on her bed. She looked around her bedroom panting; her heart was racing inside of her chest, she could hear it bumping loudly in her ears. The bedroom was silent and dark. She lifted her hand to her forehead to clean the sweat and breathed profoundly trying to calm herself. _It was a dream. It was a dream. It was just a nightmare._ She kept repeating in her head. She hugged her legs between her arms, rested her forehead on her knees and cried softly remembering the pain she felt when watching Cloud hurt.

Aerith reached for her cell-phone and quickly typed him a message. "Are you alright?" She sent. Because he didn't answer her, she didn't rest the whole night through.

When the first rays of sunlight of the third day Cloud had been gone, came into her bedroom from the slightly opened shutters of her window, Aerith rose to her feet and dressed a pink long-sleeved turtleneck shirt, put on a red skirt and her brown hiking boots. She sat down in front of her chest of drawers and looked at the mirror. Her reflex had rings under her emerald green eyes and she looked more tired than rested for someone who had just wakened up. She stood up and grabbed her cell-phone checking for new messages. The screen was blank, empty. She let out a restless sigh and walked around her bedroom back and forth, not knowing what to do. She tied her hair on a ponytail, leaving the light-brown bangs loose, left her bedroom and went downstairs.

_He said he'd be __back in two days and nothing._ She thought but wondered if she wasn't just being paranoid. She had been through that kind of anxiety before, she knew missions could take much longer than what had been planned but still, after that nightmare she had, she kept having a strange feeling. _I can't be friends with a SOLDIER, I have to stop… Well, technically he's no longer SOLDIER but still, he is killing me._ She babbled to herself.

Not bearing to stay inside the house, she walked outside, standing in the middle of her little garden and looking at the break on the platform where the sunlight was coming in from. The reason why she could grow flowers outside her house. The cold morning was still a little blue as the sun hadn't come up fully in the sky yet, everything was silent, even the wind wasn't blowing although the air was freezing.

_Cloud… Where are you?_

But suddenly she heard the scratching of boots coming from down the path. Her eyes met a pair of tired blue ones. Cloud stumbled and had to lean against one shattered wall to regain his balance. Blood was running in a small stream from his forehead and his arms were as bruised as she had never seen them. The bleeding cuts on his skin made her shudder.

"No… Cloud!" Aerith gasped in shock and ran toward him. When she reached him she noticed his bruises were worst than what she saw from the distance. He gritted his teeth in pain and moaned as she lifted his arm to place it around her shoulders for support. Her arm went around his waist and she gathered all her strength to help him walk.

"I was attacked." He said in between gasps for air.

"I knew something was wrong. Wasn't there anyone to help you?" Aerith asked, her voice came out shaky.

"Mercenaries work alone." He said and grumbled in pain, his chest felt sore when he spoke. "I'm sorry Aerith… I had nowhere else to go… Did you miss me? I was thinking about you all the time. I had to get here as fast as I… could."

"Don't speak Cloud. You're hurt. And probably hallucinating." She blinked at his jabbering. They reached her house's entrance. "I'll take care of you now."

Aerith's mother worriedly came to help them climb up the stairs and the young brunette finally laid him down on her bed. As soon as he felt the comfortableness of her mattress, Cloud fell asleep of exhaustion.

Aerith grabbed her medicine kit and took it to her bedroom. She sat on her knees on the floor beside him and dipped a piece of white cloth in a pan full of water. She twisted the cloth and softly started cleaning his wounds, watching him soundlessly asleep. His chest went up and down shallowly.

"Oh Cloud…" Her eyes filled with tears and she bit her lower lip watching his bad condition. Even his spiky blond hair was all messy. "I'm going to take care of you."

She passed the wet cloth on his forehead cleaning up the blood from his face and with alcohol and a bit of cotton she disinfected the cuts in his arms. More than bleeding cuts he had purple bruises under them. There was also blood soaking up his turtleneck sleeveless dark shirt so she decided to carefully take it off so she could see what was wrong under his clothes. His bare chest had three long claw cuts from his shoulder down to his abdomen and she had to quickly clean them with water and bandage his chest after applying some homemade ointment her mother had taught her to make to better heal the deep wounds.

She felt his smooth skin under her fingertips as she bandaged his chest noticing in relief that she was almost done treating him.

She sighed when she was over, leaned back on her knees and looked at him sleeping. His face didn't look peaceful and she wished she could do more to ease his pain. She rose to her feet and bended down to stroke his hair away from his forehead. She leaned down and pressed her lips gently on it, resting her forehead then on his. She stayed there just hearing him breathe slowly and feeling his warm skin on hers. If she had had any doubts about him before, she was now sure of one thing.

She couldn't live without Cloud Strife.

The next day Aerith woke up and realized she had fallen asleep with her head on her arms next to him on the bed and the rest of her body sitting down on the floor, leaning against the bed. She hadn't left his side just waiting for him to wake up. She soon found out what had wakened her up. His hand was delicately caressing her hair. She lifted her head to look at him and smiled seeing that he was awake and looking down at her sitting with his back leaned against the bed frame.

"You should have slept here, not me." He said looking at her apologetically.

"I think you needed it more than me." She sobbed, happy that he was alright.

"I'm sorry if I gave you too much work."

"Don't say that… I'm glad you came here. You came back." She stared into his ocean-blue beams as they stared back at her and she couldn't hold in much longer. She rose to her feet to sit on her knees on the bed next to him. She carefully wrapped her arms around him making sure she wouldn't hurt him and sat there embracing him while crying on his shoulder. He slowly placed his arms around her resting his hands on her back. "I was so scared."

"I'm sorry." He said closing his eyes and breathing in the flowery scent from her neck. Every time he breathed this aroma of fresh flowers mixed with the vanilla smell of her skin, he felt he was home. She was the closest thing he had to that.

"Don't be…" She parted from the hug to clean her eyes and look at him making sure he seemed alright. "But… I can't lose you Cloud."

"You won't." He assured her. "You haven't given me an answer to my question yet." He had a small smirk on his lips. Yes, he was alright.

"You remember that?" Aerith knew what he was talking about.

"Yeah."

"I thought it was the pain talking. Oh Cloud look at you, how could something like that happen to you? You've lost so much blood."

"I've been through worst. Trust me." He said looking away. "I just… made a mistake this time. You still haven't answered."

"Of course I missed you Cloud." She looked at him seriously. "Silly question."

"Was it you undressing me then?" He asked finally.

"Well…" Aerith swallowed when she noticed his bare chest and well-defined firm abdomen muscles where the white bandages didn't cover. "I had to; you were bleeding from your chest. You gave me quite the scare."

"It won't happen again…" He chuckled at her slightly pink cheeks.

"Ok then… You seem a lot better, do you want some tea? I can go make some tea, it will be good for you. I'll be right back, you just stay here, it's not like you can go anywhere looking like that but you know what I mean. Does camomile sound good to you? Alright camomile it is." She babbled nervously getting up and fixing her clothes before leaving the bedroom stumbling on the carpet as she reached for the door, cursing herself for looking silly. When she left, Cloud smiled to himself from watching her uneasy. He had missed her too.

_What am I doing?_ She wondered stopping outside her bedroom.

When Aerith came back into the room, she didn't carry any trey of tea or anything like it, her hands were free and she opened the door in a rush. Her face seemed a little flushed and her lips were pressed together in a firm line. She hesitated at the door for a brief second holding the doorknob behind her back and looking straight at him. When she moved she walked across the bedroom with haste.

She reached the bed where he was sitting on and putting one knee next to his leg to kneel beside him she grabbed his head between her opened hands and leaned in to kiss him fully on the lips. Stroke by surprise, Cloud widened his eyes before slowly closing them and placing his hands on her waist kissing her back passionately. Her hand drifted off to the back of his head tangling her fingers between his blond hair. He pulled her carefully to him until she sat next to him with her legs on top of his. He moaned softly not controlling the sudden pain he felt on his sore body and she stopped kissing him to look at his face.

"Did I hurt you?" She asked quickly. He shook his head and smiled slightly pulling her closer to him again. He quietly leaned his forehead against hers and slowly pushed forward to kiss her silky soft lips again. This time the kiss was deeper, eager.

"Cloud." She parted again from the kiss grabbing his arm. "I've just realized something."

"Humm?" He asked confused and still a little dizzy from the kiss. He was addicted to her lips, didn't want to let go.

"I'm in love with you." She whispered softly in his ear. He stared at her deeply, his sapphire-blue eyes glowing by the faint morning light. She had told him the words he had longed to hear from her and she had finally found the word to express the feeling she had inside her every time she was with him. She had known it from before but hadn't realized it had happened again, for Cloud this time. Seeing him hurt and missing him for the past three days made her open her eyes about the SOLDIER. She couldn't afford loosing Cloud.

She looked intently at his face staring back at hers. His lips were slightly curved in a tiny smile by the right corner and his eyes were staring directly into hers, stunned. She smiled.

He was all she needed.

* * *

**Note:** I'm really sorry for the late update on this one, but inspiration has been lacking on this story… But finally I got over it! I really hope you liked this chapter! Thank you for reading and for the people reviewing. Please tell me what you think, it truly helps a lot. Zack will finally make his grand entrance next chapter, I just needed Aerith and Cloud's relationship to develop a little bit more! Thank you.


	5. The Ghost

**Love, Aerith**

**Chapter 5: **The Ghost

_My soldier will always return to me. _

"Are you sure I won't… hurt them or something?" Cloud asked apprehensively as he watched Aerith lay down on the flower bed and inviting him to join her by her side. He looked at the white and yellow flowers between the green grass and couldn't help wondering if they would get ruined with his weight on top of them. He had done enough damage once when he fell from the roof onto that flower bed already, he didn't want such delicate plants to be damaged.

"It's ok." Aerith giggled looking up at him. "As long as you don't lay down on top of the flowers, if you put your body around them they will be alright, they're quite strong actually."

Cloud stared at her slim body on the ground; her light-brown locks were spread on the grass, her lips were a velvety scarlet smiling at him, her skin looked so smooth and vivid, it was hard to resist any request this girl asked of him. Not to mention the eyes, two emerald stones glazing by the light like two pieces of polished jewellery as bright as stars. He nodded and carefully laid down beside her on the flower bed from the church. The soft touch of the grass felt fresh on his skin and his hands felt the silky surface of the petals from the bloomed flowers. It felt very comfortable to him to be there. His head was right next to hers and he turned to look at her, eyes locked together. She smiled at him.

"I'm so glad you didn't give up on me Cloud." She said, closing her eyes.

"When I first met you… you seemed so sad." Cloud said. "It was heart-breaking."

"But you understood… not many people would have had the same patience." Aerith opened her eyes again and smiled at the man laying next to her.

"Aerith…" Cloud hesitated. "I wanted to ask you something… but don't take me wrong, I just needed to know…"

"You can ask me anything." Aerith frowned but let out a giggle.

"Have you…" Cloud didn't know how to put it. "Forgotten him?"

Aerith opened her mouth to answer but no sound came out. She stared at the SOLDIER for a moment just thinking of what she was going to say. She sure wasn't expecting that kind of question. When she didn't answer right away, Cloud's heart thumped painfully against his chest.

"I see…" He said and turned his head to look above. It wasn't that he was mad at her or anything because he knew how much it had hurt her when he was gone, but what was hurting Cloud was knowing that he hadn't done enough to try to make her forget him.

"Cloud…" She called and her voice was a soft melody in his ears. She pulled his chin gently with her fingers, rolled on her side and lifted her head to look him in the eyes. "You're the only one I think about all the time. You know that you and I could never forget Zack for what he meant to us. But what matters is right now, what we are living. And Cloud… I'm yours. And you're all I want." Aerith didn't want to lie to him, she never did and she had always wanted to stay true to her feelings. She loved Cloud and she couldn't stand seeing him hurt because of her. It was true she sometimes thought about Zack but only in memories long gone. Cloud was there and he was real. Cloud completed her heart and made her feel better in every way.

The blond SOLDIER placed one hand on the back of her head, tangling his fingers between her brown locks of hair and pulled her softly to him so their lips could meet in a warm tender kiss.

Cloud and Aerith became inseparable.

He helped her selling flowers in the cold streets of Midgar during the day and when the basket she carried on her arm turned empty, he would slowly walk her back home. Elmyra welcomed them and proudly cooked them dinner. Aerith's mother loved having Cloud around.

One night when Aerith had fallen asleep, Cloud walked downstairs to leave where Elmyra was stitching a ragged skirt on the chair of her kitchen.

"I'll be going now madam." He politely said as he crossed the floor.

"Please Cloud?" Elmyra stopped him. "Would you like to join me for tea and some muffins I made?"

"Oh I don't want to bother you." Cloud really didn't want to give her much trouble.

"Please I insist. You'll never be a bother." The older woman smiled warmly. "Plus… I have been meaning to talk to you privately if you don't mind. Please take a seat." Cloud nodded and did as he was asked, pulling one wooden chair to sit at the table while Elmyra took the muffins out of the oven and poured him some tea in a cup.

"Thank you." He said and Elmyra sat across from him on her seat.

"Cloud… I have to thank you for what you are doing to my Aerith." Elmyra started speaking and Cloud took a sip of his hot peppermint tea, listening. What was there to thank him? Being with Aerith was all he wanted. "I'm sure you know why Aerith always seemed so sad." Cloud nodded once, pausing to place his cup on the table between his hands. He stared at the light liquid quietly. "When you arrived in her life… Aerith started smiling again. And singing, have you heard her singing? She has such a beautiful voice…"

"I know…" Cloud said, looking up to look at the woman.

"Before you… She was always… sad, crying, she shied away from everyone. She only left home to go to the church to pray for…" Elmyra interrupted and sighed. "But now she's different. You make her happy and I will be forever thankful to you Cloud."

"Ma'am, I'll do everything in my power to keep her happy." Cloud said seriously. "She… is very special to me…"

"I can see that." Elmyra smiled. She could notice when someone was in love for miles and she didn't have to go that far to see it on Cloud's face.

"Thank you for the tea ma'am." Cloud stood up. "I have to go now."

"Of course…" Elmyra joined him to walk him to the door. "But please stop calling me ma'am." She giggled patting him on the shoulder. "Just Elmyra is fine."

Cloud had never been in love. He had had a couple of flings before when he was younger but nothing compared to what he felt for Aerith now. So it was only natural that he sometimes didn't know what to do with his feelings. He was learning with her how to be in love. It was a cold winter day when he was laying on his bedroom. He shared a small apartment in Midgar with his roommate Barret Wallace, but he wasn't at home that time so there wasn't much to do around but think.

Cloud stared quietly at the ceiling, his hands under his head. He sighed. He was thinking what he could give Aerith as a present. It was her birthday in two weeks and he wanted to give her something special, something meaningful so he could always be with her when he wasn't in person.

"_I'm in love with you." _He heard her voice in his head telling him. He wondered what she would like from him. Suddenly, he heard the door lock clinging and then heard the door slightly slamming. Yes, Barret was home. Cloud jumped out of his bed and joined his friend in the living room where Barret was already sitting on the couch, feet resting on the coffee table, one arm spread across the top of the couch and the remote on one hand, changing channels.

"Oh hey!" The man greeted as the blond sat across the couch.

"Barret…" Cloud started. "You have a girlfriend right?"

"I have many, dude." Barret laughed.

"Oh ok…" Cloud rolled his eyes. "Then you must know what to give _them _on their birthday right?"

"Are you having problems with a special lady you dog?" His roommate teased.

"I just needed an opinion." Cloud coolly answered.

"Try giving her flowers. It always works."

"She's already a flower girl."

"Oh right…" Barret stopped to think for a moment. "Clothes?"

"Something more personal." Cloud shook his head.

"Damn you yellow head, you're hard to please." Barret grunted. "Try jewellery. Diamonds are a girl's best friend right? But you gotta have a loaded wallet for that man."

"Thank you Barret." Cloud rose to his feet thoughtfully.

"Anytime man."

When Cloud left his home he already had an idea in his head, but he had to have money for that. He headed for the Shinra building thinking that they might have some jobs posted there for mercenaries to take. If he did a couple of them, he was sure to have enough money to buy Aerith something special.

When he was walking towards the Shinra building, something caught Cloud's eye. Laying on a shelter from a shop window was a silver necklace with a small silver heart in its middle. The little heart had a tiny scarlet ruby in its centre. That would be the perfect gift he could give Aerith. If only he had that kind of money with him.

When the time came he had to tell her, Cloud took a deep breath and then let it all out quick and painless.

"I have to go on a couple of missions and I'll only be back next week." He said and then waited for her reaction.

"Oh…" Aerith looked down. Next week would be her birthday and she wondered if he was going to miss it. "Do you really have to go?"

"Yeah…" Cloud lifted her chin up with his hand. "I will be back." He knew what that meant for her, being close to her birthday.

"Cloud." Her eyes filled with tears and she started punching him on the chest over and over. "Don't you dare not come back to me! Do you hear me? If you don't come back, I will hunt you like you have never been hunted before!" She yelled while hitting him.

"Aerith…" He grabbed her by the wrists, stopping her hands and let out a small laugh. "You won't get rid of me that easily."

"Promise me."

"I promise."

One week went by. One week with her heart tightened inside her chest. He called her everyday but it wasn't the same thing not having him there. Aerith was restless but she knew his words were true when he promised he would be back. The next day was her birthday and it had been a very long time since she looked forward to it. She was turning 20. She would take Cloud to dinner some place nice and then probably go out of Midgar to see the stars from the fields. There was really not much to do around in the city.

The sun was already setting when she entered the church that day. Her basket of flowers was empty and she kept the gil she had made selling them neatly folded in the pocket from the brown trousers she was wearing with a cherry-colored long sleeved shirt buttoned at the front. She filled her watering-can outside the church and went back inside to pour it on the flowers. Her brown hiking boots scratched on the wooden floor as she crossed the church. Everything was quiet. When she kneeled on the floor and let the water fall gently on her flowers she felt someone's presence at the door.

"Aerith…" A slightly familiar voice called, a voice she didn't hear for a very long time and a voice she used to know by heart. A chill ran through her spine.

* * *

Cloud crossed the Shinra's entrance floor and reached for the treasury where he was going to be paid for all the jobs he had done during the week. It had been a while since he had done so many in a row but it had been worth it. Just to see her smiling. Just to give her something she could carry everyday that he gave her. He felt tired, his muscles were sore but there was still something he had to do first, before he could meet Aerith.

"There you go." The employee behind the counter handed him a fat envelope containing all the money Cloud had earned. "You worked hard this time." The black-haired woman smiled widely at him.

"Yeah…" Cloud said taking the envelope with one hand.

"Hey have you heard the rumours?" The woman said quickly before he could leave, it seemed she wanted to keep him there talking to her.

"What rumours?" Cloud asked shrugging.

"There have been people whispering all over the building about one long lost SOLDIER returning. Like, everybody thought he was dead and now he just shows up out of nowhere. Creepy right?"

"Who is it?" Cloud raised one eyebrow.

"I can't remember his name… But he was from your squad back in the days you were SOLDIER." The woman had been working there for a long time it seemed, Cloud mused, to be remembering the people from his squad. "I know this because that's what people have been saying around."

_Yeah right…_Cloud thought, tilted his head up thanking the woman for the envelope and turned around to leave.

* * *

Aerith stood up and slowly turned on her feet to face the person standing on the church's door. When she saw his spiky black hair, tall figure against the orange light of the sunset outside, glazing blue eyes, she lost her strength and the watering-can slipped from her hand to fall loudly on the ground, spilling the water under her feet. She widened her eyes and lifted one hand to cover her mouth. Her knees felt weak, her hands started shaking and her stomach twirled inside her; color drained from her face as if she just saw a ghost. Which in a way… was true.

* * *

Cloud exited the jewellery store with a squared box wrapped in dark-blue shiny paper on his hands. He had finally bought her the heart necklace he had so hard worked to get her. But then he stopped frozen on his feet as something hit him like thunder.

"_Someone from your squad back when you were SOLDIER."_

Could it be? Cloud wasn't going to stand there and wait. He ran as fast as he could towards the church.

* * *

"Zack…" Aerith gasped, her voice couldn't come out clear.

"You have no idea how long I have been waiting for this day." Zack's eyes flickered and his voice cracked as he slowly approached her, taking careful steps across the floor. When he reached her, Aerith was overwhelmed by the familiar musky smell of his skin. He smelled the same and she had missed that scent. Her head felt dizzy. He reached for her hands with his, the touch of his skin… how she had missed his warm skin against hers. She closed her eyes as tears began to fall down. When she opened them again, he was really standing in front of her, those Ocean-blue shimmering eyes stared down at her kindly. He rested his forehead against hers. It was real, she wasn't imagining things.

"I thought you…" She started saying but his fingertips touched her lips stopping her.

"I'm sorry I took so long." He said. But as much as she wanted to be there in his arms, what she was feeling wasn't the same as before, because now, all she could think about was Cloud.

* * *

Outside at the church's entrance, Cloud stood panting and petrified as he watched them hold each other in an embrace. His heart ached painfully inside his chest, breathing was getting harder, and he felt like suffocating. Zack was back and he would lose her. He looked at the small box in his hand and one tear fell on the paper's surface. He clenched it between his fingers and turned around to leave.

* * *

**Note**: Thank you for reading and thank you the people reviewing. Please do tell me what you think. The poor Cloud… I feel so bad for him, but hopefully things will work out next chapter. See you then!


	6. Hollow

**Love, Aerith**

**Chapter 6:** Hollow

_In you__r hand, that's where my heart will always be._

"Zack…" Aerith whispered while she silently let the warm tears fall slowly down her cheeks. His forehead pressed against hers, softly brushing her skin. She was drawn in by his warmth and the intoxicating smell of his skin. She had longed for him for so long she had almost forgotten how it felt to be close to him. In that moment she was being overwhelmed all at once by every sensation he had left with her four years ago. His fingers carefully stroked her cheek and a shiver went through her spine when she felt his tender touch. His lips threatened to brush hers as he leaned closer. But suddenly remembering where she was and coming back to reality, Aerith hands lifted to rest on his chest. She couldn't kiss him, she realized, as much as she wanted to. It wouldn't be fair. Not to her, not to Cloud… She slowly but firmly pushed him inches away.

With Ocean-blue orbs glazed over, he stared back at her in confusion. His lips were slightly parted, taken aback by her reaction. Something had to be wrong.

"You have been gone for too long…" Aerith looked down closing her eyes. What was she doing? She couldn't bear looking at him; she didn't want to see the look in his face when she was in front of him breaking his heart. Her chest ached inside and she let out a desperate sob. It seemed like air was lacking for her to breathe in.

"What… do you mean?" Zack's voice was cautious, doubtful. Aerith bit her lower lip still not looking up. Her silence, her tears, her eyes avoiding looking at his and the way she pushed him away were starting to be clear to him. "You didn't wait for me." He stated. His heart tightened inside of his chest and it was having a hard time beating. He took two steps away from her with all kinds of thoughts running through his mind but he couldn't blame her.

At first he couldn't stand looking at her because blood boiled with fury inside his veins but he tried calming himself down before he exploded. How could he point a finger at her if he was the one staying away for so long? Almost like abandoning her. But he knew that hadn't been the case. He also knew what he had, or more like what he had had once. Aerith was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen with a stunning personality to match. She was everything a man could want. He shook his head, his eyes started to water so he had to look up towards the sky to restrain the tears from falling. He ran a hand through his glossy-black hair and kept his hand behind his neck rubbing it.

"I guess I was asking for it." Zack exhaled, turning away from the young woman sobbing. She grabbed her arm with her hand trying to hold herself together because she was feeling like she was going to break into pieces any minute now.

"I waited. I did." Aerith tried speaking but she felt terrible, she wasn't trying to make an excuse, she should have been there waiting for him to come. If she had just waited a little while longer things would have been different. It was all her fault Zack was hurt and now her feelings weren't the same, but seeing him there had definitely awakened something in her.

"I almost died…" Zack spoke, turning his back at her. "I was in coma for two years. Some people of a small town found me when I was hurt and took care of me and when I was strong enough to return, I left. All this time I wanted to come back to you. I kept seeing your face when my eyes were closed. You were guiding me back to life… like an angel"

"I prayed for you everyday." Aerith hiccupped from crying. She took one clumsy step towards him, her knees felt weak supporting her body when she walked, her hand lifted to touch his arm, she wanted to turn him around so she could see him. "I'm sorry Zack…"

"I believe you Aerith…" Zack's voice cracked and he grabbed her hand with his and pulled her body against his chest, holding her small figure between his arms; he rested his chin on top of her head smelling the warm soft flowery scent emanating from her hair. He had missed her… so bad. "I will believe anything you say…" _Because I still love you._ _Always will. _He didn't say it aloud.

How could he say it when she belonged to someone else now?

He felt her warm tears soaking his dark uniform shirt on the chest. Yes, he believed every word she said, because he knew she was incapable of lying. And if she was now with someone else, it was because he had left her alone. Sure he had expected her to be waiting for him to return but now he realized it wouldn't have been fair. She had no idea where he was the way he knew she would be there.

"Come on now…" He parted the embrace placing his hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her down when he should be the one calming himself down. He gave her a warm smile or at least tried to so he could show her he was fine, even though he wasn't. He understood she was feeling as bad as him if not worse so he gave her a little kiss on the forehead closing his eyes as he did. Aerith sobs started to fade as she stared into his blue reassuring eyes. "I'll take you home."

As they walked silently side by side, Zack thought about who could have possibly taken his place in her heart. He was in shock and broken-hearted like the world had been suddenly taken from under his feet but he wasn't mad at Aerith, he could never be mad at her but the guy who had stolen her from him… that was different. He wondered what he would do when he met him, because… oh he wanted to meet him! He had to know who this guy was and if he was better than Zack. Maybe beat the crap out of him for stealing his Aerith from him. But then he wondered that he couldn't do that to Aerith. He knew she wouldn't forgive him for that, but still…

_I need to get a boxing bag…_ Zack mused; he needed to expel some of the resentment he was feeling inside him. Anything to make him feel better.

They were almost at her house when someone emerged from her house's little garden, closing it. Blond spiky hair, angelic delicate features, big blue sparkling eyes and a mercenary uniform. Cloud froze on his feet as he watched them stop their pace and look at him. He wasn't planning on meeting them there; he had been hoping he was fast enough to leave without being seen. But he had been too late.

"Cloud?" Zack slightly laughed watching his friend standing there bewildered. He had missed his friend but he was confused seeing him there, leaving Aerith's house. "What are you doing here?" He asked. Cloud looked down blankly and speechless. Aerith widened her eyes and gasped. Realization hit Zack like a stab on his back. He didn't have to be a genius to understand what was going on. He looked from one another, Cloud kept avoiding his gaze and Aerith looked sadly at Cloud as more tears came falling down her eyes in a fast stream down her cheeks and onto the floor. Her heart was speeding when she looked at the blond.

"I can't believe this." Zack's voice was grim. He shook his head as if he was trying to wake up from a very sadistic dream. "You're the one who stole Aerith from me. This is great." Zack laughed but his voice came out as a desperate shriek, tears threatened to fall again, tears of rage. "My bestfriend and the woman I love. Are you kidding me?" Zack yelled not controlling the monster starting to form from deep within his guts.

"I didn't know who Aerith was when I met her…" Cloud tried to explain. His eyes didn't lift to look at him. "And when I did it was too late."

"You shut up!" Zack pointed a finger at the blond soldier. His hands curled up into two shaking fists then. "I spent two years of my life trying not to die and another two recovering so I could come back and I find this. It's as if I had never existed! I might as well have died while I could! Why bother to come back?" Zack stopped talking to breathe heavily in and steady his voice, he wasn't going to cry. "I thought you were my friend Cloud. Friends don't take each others girlfriends!"

"I thought you were dead, Zack. I'm sorry I—"

"I told you to shut up didn't I?" Zack shouted. "I don't want to hear anything you want to say to me! And don't say you're sorry! When you found out who she was it was too late huh? Why was it too late Cloud? You had already stolen her? She was already yours? When you did find out and what breaks my heart Cloud is that you didn't do anything! Oh hey you were Zack's girlfriend! Screw him though right?"

"Believe what you want. It wasn't like that." Even though Cloud understood the way his friend was feeling he couldn't help starting to get a bit of annoyed at the way he was shouting to him and distorting the truth. The blond mercenary would never betray his friend like that. He had never meant it to turn out that way but people simply can't choose who they fall in love with. He wanted to tell that to Zack… but he knew he wouldn't listen.

Cloud's aquamarine eyes finally met the turquoise ones of the black-haired ex-soldier and something ignited within Zack when he saw his face. He didn't see his friend anymore, the Cloud Strife he knew couldn't possibly have done something like that. He felt a hidden rush of pure hatred towards his once partner. Zack gritted his teeth strongly so he could control what was already threatening to burst out but it was no use. With all his mako enhanced strength he lifted one fist in Cloud's direction. He knew he promised himself not to do any stupid thing in front of Aerith but that was just too much. His knuckles hit the smooth surface of Cloud's skin in a perfect centred punch.

Cloud felt the salty and rusty taste of blood forming instantly in his mouth and when he looked back up Zack was already preparing to hit him again but this time Cloud dodged his hand by bending his head slightly backwards. Clouds hand stopped Zack's second attempt on hitting him but the black-haired man wasn't finished yet.

Watching the scene in horror Aerith begged them to stop though the two soldiers weren't listening to her screaming. She tried to stand in the middle of the pulsating raged men and placed one hand on each of their chest trying to pull them free, but of course none of the two moved as strongly as she tried to break them. How could her delicate body be any stronger than their muscled ones?

That's when Zack's elbow pulled back to advance on a new spree of hitting and it went straight into Aerith's cheek with a brute strength. Her head turned violently to the side with the impact. Dizzy with the sudden force she went a couple of steps back and lost her balance falling down on the ground on her back. She sat there, hand covering her hurt cheek, eyes wide open and full of water, mouth slightly opened as she looked in shock at the two men who stopped fighting to gasp when they saw Aerith had been hurt.

"Look at what you've done!" Cloud shouted at the black-haired man. "Are you happy now?" Zack was staring petrified at the girl on the floor who stared back at him terrified. Zack knew he would never forget the look on her face that moment. She looked like she was afraid of him. Those two emerald forests of green were full of sadness and awe staring back at him.

"I'm sorry." Zack's voice broke. He bent down to help her up, but Cloud stood in the way and pushed him back with his hands.

"Get away from her." The blond man said and placing his strong hands under her shoulders he helped the astonished girl up on her feet, his flower girl was broken again and he had to fix her.

"Please forgive me Aerith…" Zack begged as Aerith rested her head on Cloud's shoulder when he held her between his arms to take her back into the house. She didn't turn to look at him, she didn't say anything, she simply walked away from Zack in the arms of another man. Her eyes sore from crying, her cheek bruised, her heart shattered.

Zack breathed heavily in despair; his chest was hurting and panicking. He covered his face in his hands and crouched on his legs to hold a scream from escaping through his throat. He lifted up again, cleaned the tears out of his eyes and left, not knowing exactly where to go.

Cloud sat Aerith down on the kitchen chair. She looked blankly into space, the picture of Zack hurting her running through her mind over and over again like a cd player on repeat. She knew he didn't mean to hurt her, if he did he would have already had in the church plus, it was Zack, he would never do that to her but still… she just couldn't believe what had just happened.

"It's my entire fault." She said motionless after a while, just a blank stare spread across her face.

"No Aerith… It's not." Cloud placed a bag of ice covered with a kitchen cloth under his eye and another one on her cheek to ease her pain and sat on the chair next to her, keeping his hand holding the bag of ice for her.

Aerith eyes flickered to his.

"I'm sorry Cloud." She said. "You didn't deserve any of that."

"Don't worry about me. How could we have known Aerith?" He said solemnly. "When I watched him… die?"

"You were there?" She asked. Cloud nodded once and Aerith looked down thoughtfully.

"I understand if you want me to leave. I will understand your choice." Cloud finally spoke. He didn't want to understand it, he didn't want to let go of her, but he couldn't be selfish and if she still liked Zack he couldn't be in the way. He didn't care what happened to him as long as she was happy.

Aerith's green eyes popped open to stare at him in disbelief. She slowly pushed his arm down taking his hand and bag of ice away from her cheek. Cupping his face carefully not to hurt him between her hands she pulled him closer to her until their lips met. She kissed him eagerly ignoring the pain she felt throbbing on her face. She didn't want to let him go, she didn't want to lose him. All she wanted was for Cloud to kiss her.

"Don't say that…" She whispered as she rested her forehead against his. His hand stroked her good cheek softly with his fingers and closed his eyes feeling her warm breath on his face. She got up to sit back on his lap, her lips not leaving his and her fingers running freely through his blond spiky hair. He knew what had sparked that attitude on her. Zack was back and as much as he tried to ignore it he couldn't help feeling that she had been reminded of what they had had before him. He could be wrong but he had the feeling she wanted to forget and the best way to do that, was getting herself lost in Cloud. The Zack situation wasn't over yet. As they kissed, Cloud wondered if that was just the calm before the storm.

He had betrayed his friend and he wasn't proud of it. He owed so much to Zack, how could he be doing this to him? Kissing the woman he knew Zack still loved. It felt wrong. Even if she chose to be with him, Aerith could never be completely his.

"Your mother… is… home." Cloud said in between her kisses and gasps for air. She paused to look at him intently.

"You're right." She softly said and placed her arms tightly around him, feeling his tight embrace. She noticed, though, there was something strange on the way he was kissing her, maybe hesitation with a hint of coldness. "I should go rest… Would you take me to bed?" She stared at him inquisitively for a long moment before asking. He nodded and took her hand.

When he was sure Aerith was deeply asleep he carefully and slowly slid from her side and off the bed taking his arm from under her head where she had rested it.

Standing up next to her bed he looked quietly down at her face peacefully sleeping. He kneeled down on the floor and kissed her softly on her bruised cheek. Her skin had been tainted with a round red almost purple bruise.

"How could he have done this to you?" He whispered caressing her bangs away from her closed eyes. "I know it's your birthday tomorrow… which makes it harder for me to leave. But you need to figure out things in your heart first. Whichever choice you make, I'll always be waiting for you." He gave her a bittersweet smile while he whispered. "This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I love you... Goodbye Aerith."

His lips pressed hers tenderly. He got up on his feet and left her bedroom.

What Cloud didn't hear though, was Aerith calling his name in her dreams.

* * *

Zack sat on a stool at some dark bar in Midgar, back arched and elbows resting on the counter. He circled the thick glass of whiskey in his hand making the ice softly clank against the glass.

"I stopped flirting with other women because of her." He mumbled to the barman on the other side of the counter who was cleaning the inside of a beer mug with a dry cloth. The barman wasn't exactly interested in Zack's life but the bar wasn't that much crowded and the young man looked like he really needed someone to talk to. "And do you know how hard that was for me?"

Zack looked up at the fat barman who noticed him looking at him and shrugged as if he had been listening.

"Yeah… It was that hard." Zack shook his head looking down again. It was the third glass of whiskey he drank and his vision was starting to get a little foggy. He felt light-headed and when he finished drinking the remaining liquid in his glass he slammed it hard on the wooden surface of the counter, grimaced and asked the barman for more. When the barman said that was the last whiskey he would pour his glass Zack nodded not sure he had heard him right. "And he was my bestfriend…" Zack turned serious now, remembering the times back at SOLDIER when he and Cloud laughed together at his jokes, went on missions together and looked after each other as brothers. "I tell you… that was a stab on the back I reaaaally wasn't expecting to get. And I've been stabbed a lot of times before!" Zack laughed not making sense of his words.

"This one really killed me though." Zack finished his drink all at once. "I'm as good as dead now. Aerith… how could you?"

Zack sat there alone with his ghosts, hoping he could disappear from that world because the place where his heart had once been was just a hollow space now.

* * *

**Note:** Ok, I feel so bad for Zack! I almost cried at the end of this chapter. I hope I didn't give a bad impression of him though. I hope you liked it and please tell me what you think. Hopefully things will turn out better for Zack next chapter. Also, this trio has a lot of talking to do. Talk about messed up love triangle… Thank you so much for the reviews everyone! And thank you for reading! Also, thank you **chibipinkbunny** for all the help you're giving me to be better! ^^


	7. Distance

**Love, Aerith**

**Chapter 7:** Distance

_Wherever you go, don't forget me. _

When Zack woke up the next day he took a couple of minutes to realize where he was sleeping. He was lying on a couch he was sure wasn't from his home, at least not that he remembered, and the light coming from the open window of the small living room burnt through his eyes as he started opening them. He lifted his head with his eyes straining to open before he looked around trying to locate himself. As he lifted his head a striking pain shot through it making him lay his head back down on the couch pillow. His stomach felt sick which combined with the headache made him feel nauseous.

_Ok… Where am I?_ He asked himself confused. He tried to remember the events of the previous night but it would take an effort he knew would make his head explode. His memory was a little foggy. He took a deep breath and rested one hand on his forehead. _Damn… What a hangover…_

"Morning!" Someone cheerfully called from the living-room's entrance. Lifting his head carefully this time Zack saw the tall figure of a man leaning against the door's frame and chuckling at him. "Rough night huh?"

"Could you keep it down Kunsel?" Zack's head rested down again on the pillow. Things were beginning to clear in his head. He remembered knocking on his friend's house and asking for a place to crash for the night. What surprised him though was the fact that he managed to get there in the deplorable state he was in, and how on Gaia did he manage to ask Kunsel for a place to stay? _Oh wait…_ Zack thought, _I kind of didn't ask. _

"_Hey Kunsel!" Zack had a teasing smile on his face, cheeks slightly red, voice dragging as he appeared at his door knocking enthusiastically at 4 in the morning. _

"_Zack?" Kunsel blinked a couple of times staring at his long-gone friend. His sleepy half-lidded eyes popped out widely in disbelief as he looked at the SOLDIER._

"_Surprise!" Zack laughed and walked inside of Kunsel's apartment. _

"_I must be dreaming." Kunsel continued. "I mean… there were some rumours but I think they just got into my head and now I'm dreaming about it."_

"_Hey yeah… Do you mind if I sleep here on your couch tonight, thanks."_

"_Humm yeah sure." But before Zack heard the answer he was already falling heavily on his stomach on the double-seat couch in Kunsel's living room. Zack's feet hung out of the couch while his arm fell along side until his hand touched the floor. He was fast asleep, lips slightly parted and dead drunk. _

"It's good to see you too, Zack." Kunsel rolled his eyes at him. "Are you going to tell me what the heck happened to you?"

"It's a pretty long story." Zack slowly sat up while carefully supporting the back of his head with his hand.

"Ok. Today is my free day. We have time." Kunsel sat down next to him.

* * *

When Barret found his roommate in the morning, Cloud was sitting on the couch from their apartment, elbows on his knees, and head dropped down in resignation. Next to his foot laid a black travelling bag.

"Is… something wrong?" Barret blinked watching as the blond sat quietly with his chin almost touching his chest.

"I might be leaving for a while Barret." Cloud's voice was rough with sadness and when he looked up at his friend, Barret noticed that his eyes were blood-shot with purple bags hanging underneath. He hadn't slept the whole night. He had just been sitting there on that seat lost in his thoughts and figuring out if he should go on with his plan.

"Man you look like shit!" Barret exclaimed widening his eyes at the mercenary. "But what do you mean you're leaving?"

"I need to go away for a while. Maybe a month or so, a year, who knows." Cloud shrugged. It didn't matter where he went. He just needed to get away from Midgar.

"Where are you going?" Barret asked suspiciously.

"I don't know. Somewhere far. Maybe to my Hometown."

"That town in the country? What was its name, Nibelheim?"

"Yeah…"

"That's really far. Are you running away? Did you get into some kind of trouble? Cos' I know some people, you know what I mean? They can help you. Is it game? Did you steal from someone? Drugs? Don't tell me it's drugs! Though that could explain the look on your face…"

"No Barret." Cloud sighed in annoyance. "It's nothing like that."

Cloud himself wasn't sure why he was going away, giving up on everything. He knew one thing only though. Zack was back and he couldn't compete with him. And even if he wanted to, he couldn't betray his friend the way he had already did. He was a traitor in Zack's eyes and that was something he couldn't live with. He loved Aerith but he couldn't be with her. The thought of having to live without her made his stomach feel sick. As long as she was happy…

He looked thoughtfully at the train ticket next to his mobile phone on top of the coffee table. It was a one-way ticket out of that city.

Suddenly his mobile phone started ringing and vibrating on the table's surface. He looked over at it to see her name appearing on the blue screen.

"Are you going to take that?" Barret asked.

"No." Cloud answered after a long moment. It was hurting him not to, especially on the day of her birthday, she had no idea how much it hurt him, no one had but him. Breathing was hard, just being there looking at the mobile phone vibrate was hard.

* * *

Aerith snapped her phone shut looking sadly at it. She wondered where Cloud was but she didn't want to think he was deliberately not answering. She held the phone close to her chest and tightly in her hand.

After ten minutes of waiting for him to call back she got up, got dressed and left her house to go to the church. She sat down on the first wooden bench from the first row and looked up at the hole on the roof where the sunlight came in with several rays of bright light. The events form last night ran through her mind. Zack, Cloud, their fight and the mistake Zack had made. She raised a hand to her cheek and softly stroked it feeling the aching bruise on her skin. It didn't feel as bad as it did last night but it definitely wasn't good. She would give anything to erase that night from her head, anything.

_I shouldn't have left bed today_… She thought quietly to herself. _I should have already known my birthday is never a good day._ She remembered that day four years ago when Zack told her he had to leave on a mission to be gone for what seemed like forever. Now, Cloud's absence couldn't be good and there was some strange feeling inside her chest telling her something wasn't right.

* * *

"There's just one thing I don't understand." Kunsel said thoughtfully after Zack had explained to him everything he had been through. From the attack, the coma, the family that took care of him to the part where he came back to see Aerith and she was with Cloud.

"What?" Zack asked shrugging while he took a sip of the water bottle Kunsel had given him.

"What are you still doing here?" Kunsel asked in an obvious tone of voice.

"What do you mean?" Zack pause to look at him in confusion.

"Well the way I see it you screwed pretty bad things with Aerith last night. Shouldn't you go talk to her and apologize? It's the least you could do for now don't you think? You say you don't want to stay away from her even if you can't be her boyfriend anymore. So… go be her friend and apologize!" Kunsel advised while Zack listened to him carefully.

"I don't know Kunsel…" Zack shook his head and a striking pain hit him again. "Ouch." He moaned lifting his hand to the top of his head. "I'm not drinking ever again. It really was a one day thing only."

"You won't solve any problems with drinking that's for sure." Kunsel said.

"Thanks for the warning." Zack rolled his eyes sarcastically. "I guess you're right though. I should go apologize to her."

"What about Cloud?"

"I miss him Kunsel. I've missed my friend but…"

"Have you considered that it probably wasn't his fault that he fell for Aerith?" I mean… you don't get to choose those kinds of things right?"

"I just couldn't believe Aerith did that to me. I seriously thought she'd be waiting for me. How did she get over me that quickly? I completely made a fool of myself when I went to meet her in the church. I kind of got there and tried kissing her like she was still mine."

"It's been four years Zack."

"So? Does love have an expiration date?"

"You're being selfish aren't you?"

"I'm just being broken-hearted man." Zack replied dropping his hands between his knees and sighing.

"Man we should stop talking about this. I feel so girly talking about feelings." Kunsel shook his head as he noticed the two sitting on the couch. "I guess the only thing missing here is a bucket of ice-cream for you."

"Joke all you want. When it happens to you I'll see how you do." Zack said finally rising to his feet in a slow movement. He didn't want to make any sudden movements that would cause that throbbing pain in his head again.

"Have you made up your mind?" Kunsel asked looking up at him.

"Yeah… I have to find Aerith." The black-haired man said. "I need some explanations and I need to apologize."

"That's the Zack I knew who just doesn't sit on things." Kunsel smiled.

"Thanks Kunsel. After Aerith… I had no one I could go to." Zack stretched his hand at his friend to shake his firmly.

When Zack walked the hectic streets of Midgar he only had one place to go. He would try to find her at the church with the hope that she was there. He knew that if he showed up at her house her mother would most certainly have a heart-attack by seeing him there. He kept his fingers crossed as an extra measure of good luck. He passed by thousands of people on his way to the church, all the while thinking about what he was going to say to her. He had a lot to tell Aerith, and this time he was hoping to sit down quietly and listen to what she had to say about her relationship with Cloud. He wanted to know how it happened and he felt like they owed it that to him.

That's when he got a glimpse of someone's golden spiky hair followed by the sky-blue of two shimmering eyes, staring at him. He looked up following the yellow color of his hair to find Cloud a couple of steps in front of him. His hand was carrying a black bag, his face looked miserable like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders and not just a travelling bag on his hand. They didn't know for how long they stood there puzzled looking at each other before the first one made the first move.

"Going somewhere?" Zack finally asked breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Yeah… I'm going to take the train out of here." Cloud answered, his eyes met the floor.

"Why?" Zack asked raising one eyebrow. He stared at the blond man in front of him as he didn't answer. "Don't worry… if she forgot about me that easily, she'll have no trouble forgetting about you as well."

"Don't you dare say something like that about her!" That made Cloud's hands turn into fists and start shaking. Rage tingled through his veins while his stomach contorted in pain. "You have no idea how she looked like when I first met her! She pushed me back, she didn't want to speak to anyone and there were days I could tell she spent the night crying over you! If you want to put the blame on someone, that would be me. I was the one who didn't give up on her because it broke my heart to see her in the state she was in."

Zack opened his mouth to speak but he hesitated and just looked down.

"Why are you leaving then?" Zack finally asked.

"Because I can't stay here knowing how much you love her. It would only be a matter of time before she realizes she never stopped loving you too and go back to you." Cloud answered and his throat tied into a knot, he struggled to keep his voice steady. He knew he was right; it was Zack standing there in front of him, her first love.

"So you're just giving up, is that it?" Zack asked staring straight into the blue eyes of the blond mercenary. "I didn't think you were one to give up. Did you tell her you were leaving?"

"I left her a letter. Now I have a train to catch." Cloud said and started walking again. "Goodbye Zack." He said when he walked past the black-haired man. Flashes of memories ran through their minds as they remembered the times they had spent together as SOLDIERS. They were but distant recollections of times that were long past.

* * *

Aerith finished tending her flowers at last and rose to her feet, cleaning the perspiration from her forehead with the back of her hand. She smiled warmly at her plants and whispered them a goodbye before leaving the church.

When the flower girl from the slums reached her house, she went straight to the bathroom to take a long warm bath and dress into some clean clothes. After resting for a couple of minutes on her bed, she got up and climbed down the stairs into the kitchen where Elmyra was taking some groceries out of a paper bag to put them away.

"Happy birthday my dear." She kissed her daughter's forehead and smiled. "I bought some of your favourite food to cook you a nice dinner tonight."

"Thank you mom." Aerith said giving her a small smile because she wasn't hungry. She didn't say it to her mother so she wouldn't break her heart.

"Oh by the way! Did you read the letter Cloud left you? He dropped by yesterday to ask me to give it to you. I found that a little strange, did you guys fight or something?" Elmyra asked while she took the last groceries out of the paper bag.

"Mom… where is this letter?" Aerith's voice came out a shocked whisper, her green eyes open wide and her body froze while she cursed her mother for not giving her the letter sooner.

"I left it next to the phone at the entrance desk." Elmyra said. "I thought you would see it there. He also left a little blue box with it. It must be your present."

Aerith turned around hurriedly to run to the entrance where she found the letter under the square blue box on the desk. She quickly opened the envelope and took out the white piece of paper, her hands trembling as she opened it. Her eyes eagerly scanned the written words in his handwriting:

_Dear Aerith,_

_Part of me wanted to forget what I saw today and stay with you. But I don't want you to be with me while you're thinking of what could have happened if you returned to Zack. I understand you still have feelings for him and I know I would lose you sooner or later. I want you to know though… that I love you and if you do want to be with me, I'll be waiting for you. If you decide otherwise, I'm leaving tomorrow to go somewhere, anywhere, just to put some distance between us. Where I end up isn't important because I would do anything to make you happy._

_I'll never forget you Aerith and everything you were to me is something I can't exactly explain. _

_I'm sorry I could only say this by letter, but I hope you understand how much it would hurt me to say it in person. _

_I hope you like the present I'm giving you. I would love to see you wearing it. _

_Until we meet again,_

_Love, _

_Cloud._

After Aerith had finished reading the letter, her vision was blurry with tears. She started breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating with the thought of Cloud leaving. She tore apart the blue paper wrapping the box and then opened it carefully, her hands still trembling. The sight of the silver necklace with a small heart, which encased a crimson ruby in its middle, made her let out a faint laugh in between sobs. As she looked at it in her fingers she thought it was the most beautiful silver necklace she had ever seen. Placing the box on the desk, she fastened the necklace on her neck, it fit her perfectly like it had always belonged there. The cold touch of silver on her warm skin made her shudder.

She looked at the entrance clock, wondering in panic if she still had time to stop Cloud from leaving. What gave him the idea that she didn't want to be with him? She folded Cloud's letter carefully in four and shoved it into the pocket of her red coat. She yelled at her mother that she was going out, and before Elmyra could reply, Aerith was already out the door and running to the train station. This is why Cloud was leaving her house yesterday when she arrived with Zack there. She wondered in horror if she would be too late. No, she couldn't be late, Cloud couldn't go away, she wouldn't let him go if it was the last thing she'd do.

She ran as fast as she could, the cold air making it hard to breathe as it cut through her nostrils and into her lungs. She heard the wind whistling in her ears and she knew nothing would keep her from reaching Cloud on time. Well, nothing except something she wasn't expecting to happen.

When she stopped to look at some directions to the train station, someone placed a hand over her mouth and grabbed her arms while she struggled with all of her strength to get free. Unfortunately, the mysterious person was able to drag her into a black van and take her away. She tried screaming and kicking as they pulled her into the smoked-glass van, but her efforts were futile. Her voice was muffled by a suffocating hand over her mouth and her legs were being held by someone she couldn't make out clearly.

_No… Cloud!__ I need to stop you! _She shouted in panic inside her mind as her vision started to disappear while darkness engulfed her.

* * *

Cloud looked from his ticket to the train that was already on the platform. A woman's voice informed all the passengers to board the train that was leaving in five minutes. As a last string of hope, Cloud looked off into the distance in an effort to locate someone that looked like Aerith. He had been fooling himself that she would stop him from going; he wanted to believe she'd be there. But no one in that station looked like the green-eyed beautiful brunette he was hoping to see.

_I guess she's not coming… _He thought and felt his eyes starting to burn.

He squeezed the stripe of his bag tightly between his hand.

Cloud sighed sadly, looking down at the ground as he took one step forward toward the train stairs. Suddenly, he heard a very faint voice calling his name.

* * *

**Note:** Just wanted to say that here in my story both Zack and Cloud are SOLDIER partners! Yeah Cloud made it into SOLDIER here! Good boy! Thank you so much for the reviews everyone! I really appreciate every single one of them! Also I'd like to thank my friend **Prexistence** for the help she gave me going through my chapter! *hugs* And my **chibipinkbunny** because she helped me decide what to write next! Thank you everyone reading and reviewing! I really mean it!


	8. Lost

**Love, Aerith**

**Chapter 8: **Lost

_The flowers… they bring hope.__ I will never give up on you._

"Cloud! Wait!" He called again and watched as the blond man turned to look for the person calling his name in between the people on the platform. When Cloud raised an eyebrow in curiosity Zack knew he had already seen him running towards him. Cloud stopped on his feet, his hand already lifted with the train ticket gripped in between his fingers. "I'm glad you haven't departed yet. I was afraid I wouldn't be here in time." Zack rested his hands on his knees and breathed in heavily to catch his breath.

"Zack I really don't have time for this if you came here to yell at me some more." Cloud sighed impatiently.

"Do you think I'd run this far to get you in time from leaving if I wanted to just yell at you?" Zack stoop up and thought about what he said for a moment while Cloud stared at him silently waiting for him to think it over. "Wait… I think I would do that."

"Goodbye Zack." Cloud gave one step forward to the train once again but Zack's firm hand clenched around his arm stopping the blond from proceeding.

"I came here…" Zack started saying but looked down and away from the man in front of him. "…to stop you from doing something this stupid."

"What?" Cloud's eyes widened, he didn't understand what the black-haired man was saying.

"I came here to stop you from going away and leave her behind." Zack continued and swallowed hard as he looked back up again and into the aquamarine eyes of his friend who was staring in disbelief back at him. "Aerith… needs you." Zack exhaled and closed his eyes for a brief second for the next thing he was going to say would be the hardest thing he would ever say in his life. "If she didn't want me when I came back… was because she loved you. Not me. I'm the past and you're her present now. Don't walk away from her future."

"Zack what are yo—"

"Just hear me out first." Zack raised his voice, his eyes watered slightly. "If I don't finish what I have to say I will regret this forever." He swallowed to even his voice.

Cloud nodded quietly, he would give him that chance, he had to.

"When you found me back then on the street I had my mind made up on one thing only and it was to win Aerith back. I couldn't afford loosing her and I didn't care about what you felt." Zack's eyes were fixed on Cloud's. "But then when I found you and you told me you were leaving, giving up just like that. It suddenly made me angry that you were giving up on the most amazing person I had ever met in my life just like that. But then it occurred to me, that if I felt that way you would be feeling much worse than me because it's just not possible to leave Aerith behind that easily."

Cloud looked down taking in every word he was saying. If Zack wanted to make him feel better, he wasn't getting there.

"So… it came to me that… not only you were letting Aerith stay with me, but you were also letting me be with her. You were leaving because you thought that if you left we would be happy. You were giving us a chance, another chance to finally get our happy ending." Zack continued. "But what about you?"

"I don't… really care about me." Cloud said simply as if it was obvious to him.

"Exactly. But I realized that I do." Zack let go of his arm, finally. "I know I've been acting really stupid since I showed up but as much as you think otherwise, I do care about you. Always have and no matter what happens, even this," Zack let out a small laugh. "always will, Cloud. I should be the one leaving, not you. I should have never come back."

"Zack… I didn't get a chance to tell you before… I'm sorry." Cloud said solemnly.

"You better be!" Zack exclaimed teasingly. "Stealing away my girl like that!"

"I swear I didn't know it just happe—"

"Relax man!" Zack interrupted him grinning. "I can't say I'm over it but I have to respect Aerith… and I know you can't tell your heart what to feel. You're with Aerith now, what we had is gone and I have to accept it." _Even if it destroys me…_Zack didn't say aloud, his heart was tightened inside his chest. He could be grinning and he could be talking to Cloud with a smile on his face but inside Zack was hurting. He came back hoping he could take back the life he had left here but it turned out people had moved on without him and it surprised him that he had thought otherwise. It was time for him to move on too. He would give Cloud the chance that was his to be happy.

"It's not that simple." Cloud said grimly then. His voice startled Zack who wondered what he meant. Suddenly, the train's siren echoed through the platform letting the passengers know it was about to take off. Cloud stood petrified looking at it starting to move and leaving him behind. "I left Aerith a letter before coming here telling her I was leaving. If she wanted me to stay, she could come here."

"You did that?" Zack asked in awe.

"Yes, and you don't look anything like Aerith so…" Cloud paused for a moment. "I take it she is probably looking for you."

"I don't believe it Cloud." Zack said, his eyes widening. "I don't think she would do that and even if she did, she would not let you leave without talking to you first."

"She didn't come here Zack. She let me go."

"No… something must have happened. Maybe she didn't get the letter. Can you imagine if that happened? How would you live with yourself, not knowing?"

Cloud thought about it for a minute, Zack could be right, if Aerith didn't read his letter he could be making the biggest mistake of his life, well, at least almost did since the train had left already and he was still there.

"We have to find her." Cloud's bright blue eyes flickered in the light. "But what if you're wrong? I can't stand…"

"Come on!" The black-haired man pulled him by the arm. "We'll never know if we just stand here." Deep inside Zack wished he was wrong and Aerith was really looking for him but he knew he couldn't bring his hopes up.

* * *

"Well, go on." Zack nodded reassuringly to Cloud. "Elmyra will freak out if she sees me on her doorstep. Everyone thought I was dead, I'm afraid the old lady will have a heart-attack."

"You're staying here?" Cloud asked turning back to look at him.

"Nah… I think I'll go. Kunsel will let me stay at his place for a while, until I figure things out." Zack smiled, his hands went into his pockets, his shoulders lifted.

"Don't you want to wait for her?" Cloud asked, his throat tightening into a knot.

"I already know what she'll say." Zack gave him a quick tiny smile before turning around to leave.

"Zack!" Cloud called, Zack stopped on his feet but didn't turn around, his eyes burned. He was leaving Aerith behind for her to be with his best friend, what more did he have to face? "Thank you." Cloud said, Zack nodded and walked away. Cloud's blue eyes followed his silhouette until he lost his friend in the distance.

The blond man sighed alone; he still had the bag of clothes in his hand. He slowly climbed the stairs to Aerith's house and hesitating for a moment, his fist lifted up in front of the door, he knocked twice. Seconds later Elmyra opened the door. Her face was flushed; her eyes were puffy and red from crying? Cloud wondered.

"Hi…" He said at first. "Is Aerith home?"

"I was hoping you knew where she was." Elmyra raised one hand to her forehead. "She left a couple of hours ago and hasn't come back. I tried calling her cell phone but she never answered."

"What?"

"I made her a nice dinner for her birthday. She left in a hurry after she read the letter you left, I thought she was going to meet you but she always calls me when she can't make it to dinner. I even thought you were going to take her some place else, I wouldn't have minded. I was worried that she didn't tell me anything, she looked sad when she came home earlier." Seeing Cloud there without Aerith, made Elmyra's hands start shaking, he noticed. "Where could she be?"

"Have you tried the church?" Cloud asked.

"I haven't left home yet, I've been waiting for her." Elmyra's voice cracked. "Do you think something happened to her?"

"Let's not think that." Cloud assured her. "I will go look for her, please stay here she might come back. Do you mind if I leave my bag here?" Elmyra nodded and took the bag from Cloud's hands.

"Did you have a fight or something?" She asked after a long sigh.

"No…" Cloud shook his head, starting to feel anxious. "The minute I find her, I'll tell her to call you." Elmyra nodded and gave him a small smile. "Don't worry."

Cloud left the house in a hurry and already dialling Zack's number in his cell phone hoping it could still work.

* * *

Aerith's eyes opened slowly when she felt the bright lights burning through her eyelids. Her head throbbed in pain when she tried lifting it to see where she was. When she sat up her arm felt a sudden pain and when she searched to see the source of the pain she noticed a small round red mark on her arm, someone had injected something into her and just the thought of what it could have been made her feel sick.

She sat on a sort of mattress with white sheets in a small glassed compartment and because of the transparent walls around her she could see several more of those small rooms next to hers, only those were empty. That's when something orange and big by the corner of her room caught her eye.

She slowly turned her head in the orange smudge's direction until her eyes focused on a huge creature sitting there with big black round eyes staring inquisitively at her. She breathed in to hold a scream from escaping her throat.

"Please don't hurt me." She begged quickly to the huge tiger. She stared at his paws, she was sure one single strike from one of those could knock her out in a second.

"Don't worry." The tiger spoke in a smooth but sad voice. Aerith's eyes widened in surprise. "I'm not going to." There was something in his eyes, the young woman noticed, they looked so tired and gloomy.

"Where are we?" Aerith asked ignoring the fact that she was talking to a tiger that could talk back to her. Of course she was scared but the eyes of that creature seemed so heart-breaking, she felt that wherever they were, they were on the same boat.

"In Shinra's lab." The tiger said. "I'm an experiment of Professor Hojo. They call me Red XIII."

"Oh…" Aerith looked down thoughtfully. "Then I guess that makes me an experiment too." The girl sat against the transparent wall at the back of the room and hugged her legs to her chest. She looked one more time at the small round mark on her arm. "I'm Aerith."

The girl dressed in pink rested her forehead on her knees feeling the warm tears running down her cheeks.

"Cloud…" She sobbed desperately. _I wasn't there to stop him and now he's probably gone and I will never see him again. He thinks I didn't go there because I didn't love him._ _I didn't want to hurt you, any of you. Zack… I'm sorry. _

"Hey…" She heard Red's voice call her softly; he sat in the most distant corner of the room from the girl so she wouldn't be afraid of him. "We'll get away from here. I'm sure you have people looking for you, it will only be a matter of time." But Red had lost track of time being in there, he couldn't tell for how long he had been kept in that laboratory, but he couldn't let Aerith lose her hope.

"No… I don't want them to come. I will only hurt them more. This is probably for the best." She said lifting her head and the tears streamed down her face.

* * *

Cloud entered the church panting, his chest was breathing heavily but he didn't feel tired, it would take much more than that to exhaust him. What he was feeling was panic. He looked around the quiet place eagerly, she wasn't there. He climbed the stairs to the church's roof and found it empty. Aerith wasn't there either which made him want to scream.

Standing in the middle of the empty church, Cloud thought about where he could go next. It seemed like the walls were closing in on him, circling and suffocating him. Where could she be? He had never felt this lost before, this hopeless. That's when someone's footsteps snapped him out of his thoughts and fears.

"She wasn't anywhere in the market too." Zack's voice echoed through the walls.

"Zack I don't know where to look anymore." Cloud ran a hand through his smooth blond hair, his voice desperate.

"What could have happened to her?" Zack asked straining his mind to think about something.

A sudden movement at the entrance of the church made the two men turn their attention at the tall figure standing there at the door. Tseng's eyes popped open as he looked at Zack, alive.

"Shocking, I know." Zack said before Tseng's opened mouth could say anything.

"What are you doing here?" Cloud asked, his voice was a threatening hiss. Cloud had never liked the Turks and seeing him there awakened that old flame he had burning inside him.

"I came here to get some peace of mind." Tseng looked around the calm church.

"Why? What did you do?" Zack asked promptly. "I mean… of all the despicable things you guys do, something really bad must have happened for you to come to a church."

"I didn't come here to just come to a church, I came here because this is _her_ church." Tseng looked at the two men.

"What do you mean? What have you done to her?" Cloud exploded, he rushed towards the Turk and grabbed him furiously by his collar, shaking him with his fists.

"We took her." Tseng looked away from Cloud's threatening glare. The dark eyes of the Turk were full of sorrow.

"Where?" Cloud shook him again strongly.

"To the Shinra building." Tseng said motionless, his face was pale as bone and his features looked extremely weak as Cloud held him up by the neck. "Professor Hojo wanted to study her."

Cloud let go of him then beaten, his arms dropped alongside his body while his mouth dropped slightly open and his eyes flickered.

"What have you done…" Zack gritted his teeth, his hands curling up into two tight fists. Both Zack and Cloud knew what happened when Hojo found some new toys to play with in his experiments; they both had been two lab samples a long time ago until he got tired and disposed of them as if they were no longer interesting to him. They had been through hell in his hands. Zack thought about the fragile body of Aerith lost and alone inside some room waiting to be picked up and taken to some other room where they would do her all kinds of tests. His blood started boiling feverishly inside him.

"I'm sorry." Tseng looked down.

"Why?" Cloud asked, his head trying to find a reason why they could have taken her.

"You don't know?" Tseng asked in surprise. "She is a Cetra, the last one of them in the whole world."

Of course, it all made sense now, Cloud mused. Once, she and Cloud found a wounded bird struggling for his life on the ground outside Aerith's house. She picked it up and opened its wings to see the damage. When she took it home and cleaned the string of blood running down its feathers, it was only a couple of minutes before the bird was flying again.

When Cloud had been hurt in battle and came to her, she had taken care of him. He didn't notice before but now he did. Two days after she had helped him, there were no deep wounds in his body but only the marks of what seemed like long gone battle scars. Her hands were magical, they healed. The Cetras were known for their healing powers and ability to talk to the Planet. _Her flowers…_Cloud looked back at the blooming flower bed she took care of so passionately_. Why didn't I see this before? Why didn't she tell me? _

"I hope you realize what you've done." Cloud said and walked away out of the church bumping stoutly with his shoulder into Tseng's as he left.

"If anything happens to Aerith, you're a dead man. And tell that to your friends too. I will get them one by one." Zack said pointing one finger at the Turk.

* * *

**Note:** Hi! So I have a little explaining to do! When Cloud and Zack were talking about Aerith in the beginning of the chapter it may have sounded like they were referring to her as something they could have, like, "oh you can have her and I can't" without thinking of what Aerith really wanted. Well, there is a reason for that in the next chapters! So, you will find it out soon before you start getting the wrong idea! Another thing I wanted to say is that, as you might have noticed Cloud and Zack have been experiments of Hojo here, but I'm not following the exact aspects of the game so Zack wasn't really attacked by Shinra infantrymen, they didn't turn against Shinra, well, now they kind of did. Ok, with that said… thank you so much everyone reading and reviewing!! Thank you **chibipinkbunny** for all the help and **Prexistence**! *hugs* I always have to thank them especially because I talk to them a lot about this story and they help me improve my ideas and my writing! But I thank you all for reviewing!! Until the next chapter!! I really hope you liked this one.


	9. Inside the Building

**Love, Aerith**

**Chapter 9: **Inside the Building

_When you come back, I'll still be here._

_They held hands, gripping onto one another as though their lives depended on it as he walked in front of her, pulling her close behind. She liked feeling his warm hand on hers. She felt safe with him. _

Hojo's men barged into the transparent cell with guns drawn. The orange tiger growled loudly, showing its teeth to the men standing in their way as they had their eyes on the helpless girl at the back and against the wall. Red's enormous figure and threatening shiny eyes followed by sharp white teeth slowed the men down for a minute before they had orders to deal with him.

Seeing a brink on their guard, Red jumped on his four paws and those sharp teeth clamped together around one of the guard's arm easily tearing flesh apart. Suddenly, through the man's screams, a tazer-gun was shot in his direction. When it rested upon his furry back, it sent several electrical shocks throughout his skin. Red howled painfully, the sound piercing through Aerith's ears. She let out a cry for him and felt fresh tears falling down her cheeks.

_When he finally stopped, he turned around on his feet and smiled widely at her. His deep blue eyes were especially bright that day, like happiness was flowing right out of him. _

"Red!" Aerith yelled in panic as she saw the huge creature collapsing heavily to the floor and starting to convulse. The paws wobbled slightly on the floor and there was a tiny puddle of foam already forming under his mouth. Her body froze in horror and with wide emerald eyes she stared at the tiger. A feeling of revolt formed inside her stomach followed by fear for the tiger. He shouldn't have stood in their way. He had nothing to do with what they would do to her, and yet she couldn't feel more grateful to him for caring about her and trying to protect her.

_His black hair waved in the breeze and slowly his hand lifted to rest upon her cheek, stroking it softly while he leaned forward until their lips met, gently and lovingly. She smiled as she felt his silky mouth on hers thinking that right there in that moment, she couldn't feel happier. _

When strong coarse hands clasped around her bare arms and pulled her up powerfully to her feet, Aerith felt nothing but a dark void. Her tearful eyes stared blankly at the nothingness as they carried her away out of the cell. The tiger was motionless, lying on the ground. There was no one here that could help her, and it seemed like all hope was lost. Cloud was gone, and Zack wouldn't want to see her so he wouldn't be out looking for her. There was no way they could know she was here. Surprisingly, she had already accepted it. She wouldn't hurt them anymore and maybe if she was lucky enough, those men who were pushing her to walk through the corridors would put her out of her misery soon.

But for now, and to be able to last a little while longer just to have the chance to see if Red was fine, she would drift off to a peaceful, happy place where she could hold onto until the worst was over.

"_Never leave my side." He said in a smooth, flirtatious voice, a smile dancing on his lips and reaching his eyes, which looked down at her. With his fingers, he pushed one lock of her chestnut brown hair to the back of her ear. _

"_I won't… Zack." She said back, looking straight into his eyes and wanting to be lost in that Ocean of deep blue forever. _

_I wish I could go back to those times, where everything was perfect, _she thought while a tear came running down her face.

* * *

When Kunsel opened the door Zack and Cloud burst into his apartment taking the young man in front of them.

"We need your help." Zack said promptly.

"O… k?" Kunsel gasped, like he had any choice on that matter. He remembered that look on Zack's face. He could take down a tornado with that determination he had when he got too involved in a mission.

"You have to walk us through the Shinra building." Zack walked around Kunsel's living room from one side to another, his forehead wrinkled thoughtfully already working on some kind of plan.

"Have you forgotten your ways around that place?" Kunsel shrugged. Sure it had been a while, but no one knew the insides of Shinra as good as a SOLDIER.

"Kunsel, I've been considered dead for almost five years. And what we have to do in there can't draw any kind of attention." Zack was getting impatient, the adrenaline rushing quickly through his blood; he couldn't stay there for much longer. They would go over the plan on the walk if they had to. Time was running out the longer Aerith stayed in Hojo's hands. "We need you to show us the secret ways of wandering around Shinra. We need to get into Hojo's labs without being seen."

"Do you realize what you're asking?" Kunsel's eyes widened with astonishment. "Those labs are watched twenty-four hour around the clock! And there are a lot of guards there protecting them!"

"What are they afraid of getting in there?" Cloud asked finally.

"More like… getting out." Kunsel sighed. "I've heard of some monstrous things going on in there. Don't know if they're true, but something tells me I don't want to know. Why do you guys want to go there in the first place?"

"Can you help us or not?" Cloud asked impatiently. "We need some guidance and we need someone to find some distraction to those security cameras watching."

"No way man!" Kunsel shook his head quickly. "If they catch me I will be immediately disposed of."

"Listen." Cloud's blood boiled feverishly and before he knew what he was doing he was already pressing an elbow against Kunsel's throat and backing him against the wall. "Aerith is in those labs and you're worried about your stupid job."

"I didn't know." Kunsel choked out coughing. Cloud let go of him at last, shaking his head as he did, trying to get a grip on himself.

"Now you do." Zack looked straight at his friend; his eyes flickered with the faint light coming from a lit lamp. "We wouldn't be asking this if it wasn't for her."

"Let's go." Kunsel paused for a moment to think before he hurried to get some keychain he had on top of a coffee table, and placing it inside his pocket, he walked them out. He thought they had a point, and if the rumors were true about those labs, that innocent girl would be going through something worse than hell itself.

* * *

Aerith felt the soft surface of the mattress under her tired body. The bright lights burnt through her eyelids, but exhaustion was overwhelming her. Her body was trembling with coldness, and she felt as though there was no string of strength left in her to lift her head up and check on Red. She knew she was back in her cell but she had no idea how she had gotten back there.

She remembered seeing a dark-haired man's face smiling delightfully down at her while she laid on her back trying to move her arms and legs while something was holding them down. And then there was pain and finally darkness when the pain was just too much for her to hold in the screams. Not even the quiet place in her memories was strong enough to prevent her from feeling that kind of pain.

When her body was shivering, something warm and furry lay down next to her protectively and before she succumbed to sleep the last thing she saw was a glimpse of fiery orange.

_She laughed, clearly and cheerfully while Cloud's hands were shaking with nervousness as she tried telling him how to delicately cut a flower by its green stalk. The scissors were now shaking so hard she didn't know how he could still be holding them between his hands._

_"Well, it's hard!" Cloud exclaimed giving up and sitting down on his feet, kneeling on the floor next to her. "I'm afraid I'll hurt them, they seem so delicate."_

_"How are you supposed to help me with the flowers if you can't hold the scissors right?" Aerith giggled at him. "Maybe you could just help me with the sales."_

_Cloud sighed, feeling defeated and frustrated that she gave him such an unimportant task. A first class SOLDIER having trouble with something as simple as cutting one flower without damaging it. That certainly was embarrassing. But somehow that tiny flower that looked so scary to the big soldier contained such purity in his eyes that he felt his hands weren't worth the soft touch of its petals._

_"Here, let me help you." She said smiling kindly. Then she took both his hands on hers placing the scissors downwards and holding them steady inside of his own hands. "You do it like this." She opened up the scissors with his fingers. "And then carefully but steadily and very quickly..." They heard a light click of the scissors closing and gently the flower fell upon Aerith's extended hand. "You cut the stalk!" She said and giggled as she looked at the intense look on his face. He looked like a child deep in concentration, and the only thing that was missing was the tip of a pink tongue sticking out between strained lips._

_"Wow." He finally said. Realizing that she was still holding his hand, he immediately felt the burn of embarrassment color his cheeks a light pink. He stared at her for a moment, just watching as the white light coming through the broken roof of the church illuminated her features making her round emerald eyes glow softly like lucid jewels. It amazed him how she could still strike him off of his feet and send him towards the sky freely. That was how she made him feel. She was the only person, except for Zack, that had made him smile genuinely._

_He swallowed hard and remembered what her lips felt like pressed softly against his the other day when they were at her house. Burning with desire to feel those lips again he leaned forward carefully and making sure he wouldn't pull her away even though he already knew how she felt. When she followed his movement, confidence struck him like lightning and his hands cupped her face while he inhaled her scent passionately as their lips finally met. _

_Aerith's hand rested at the back of his head feeling the smoothness of his golden hair running through her fingers. His strong but soft hands let the scissors fall to the ground to rest upon her neck and shoulder, feeling her skin as it longed for him. The touch of his lips and the warmth of his tongue brushing against hers while his hands ran softly down her body made her feel whole once again, alive._

If only she could feel that again. She wondered now if she ever would.

_Cloud, if you ever come back… I hope you can forgive me for not stopping you. _

* * *

"Zack." Cloud called as his hand clenched tightly around Zack's arm making the black-haired man stop on his feet and turn to look at the blond. His chest was tight like he could feel Aerith's call. "You don't have to do this."

"This is no time to be proud Cloud." Zack shook his head. "I want to go. Plus, what will you do in there without me?"

"I just..." Cloud started. "…don't want anything to happen to you too."

"Don't worry." Zack smiled reassuringly. "It's Hojo who should be worried about something happening to him! Aerith needs _us_. We're together on this and we're first class SOLDIERS, right? Don't forget about that. This is our chance to get even with Hojo for what he did to us. I'm trying really hard not to think of what Aerith is going through in there… because I would have already burst into that place and kill everything that got in my way."

Cloud nodded but his eyes were on the ground. _First class SOLDIERS… he's right. Aerith! I know you're strong but hold on a little while longer! We're coming! _Cloud shouted to himself in his head and followed his companions who had started running towards the biggest building in Midgar. The huge structure rose tall amongst the dark streets and above the rooftops of the other edifices. When they stopped, Kunsel raised one hand, motioning the other two to stay put. They froze in place while waiting for some reaction from their friend.

"This is the backstage passage inside." Kunsel finally said taking a few steps forward into an empty back alley where they could see a rusty iron door on top of some stairs.

"Is it guarded?" Zack asked impatiently.

"Not usually, no." Kunsel answered. "But it's locked."

"Great." Cloud exhaled sarcastically.

"Don't stress." Kunsel grinned, taking his keychain from his pocket and lifting it eye-level with his hand, the keys clanking with each others. "I have the key."

"What are we still doing here then?" Zack pushed his friend in front of him and towards the stairs.

"Wait! There's a security camera pointing right to the door!" Kunsel got free of Zack's pushing hands and rolled on his feet. "I guess if we're quick on getting in they won't recognize you, and since you two are wearing SOLDIER uniforms… they probably won't notice who's coming in. We can't draw attention though or act suspiciously."

"Just open the door." Cloud said walking towards the stairs but careful enough not to stand in the camera's view. The quicker they were the better, or would there be someone who cared enough to take a better look at them. Cloud was allowed inside the Shinra building, but being a mercenary now, some rooms and floors were off-limits to him. He no longer had the usual business in there as part of them. Kunsel searched through his keychain with close attention. He tried a couple of keys before the keychain clumsily slipped from his hands and fell loudly on the floor.

"Was there something you said about not drawing attentions?" Zack rolled his eyes and tapped his foot on the ground.

"Sorry." Kunsel placed the correct key inside the keyhole and turned it finally getting the door opened. The other two men had their back to the cameras when they climbed the stairs and disappeared through the door.

* * *

Aerith softly opened her eyes and felt a constant irritating pain in her head. She didn't feel rested but anxious instead and even more tired if that was possible. Red was laying next to her, his fur keeping her warm and comfortable as she had been sleeping as close as she could get to him. Suddenly there was a knock on the glass. She lifted her head and strained her eyes to see that dark-haired man from before standing there looking at them from outside the cell.

"Good evening." The man said with a sickeningly satisfied smile as he looked down at his most recent achievements. Aerith sat upright, her eyes glaring at the simple man wearing a white doctor's coat. His eyes were covered by the white reflex of the bright lights but the smirk on his lips made the girl's stomach contort inside her.

"There there my sweet. No need to look at me like that. My name is Hojo and I will be taking care of you from now on." The sound of the man's voice made Red's ears vibrate and slowly he started coming back to senses and waking up. The tiger lifted his head to stare attentively at the man. "Ah, I'm glad you're awake." Hojo moved his head to look at the tiger, and finally Aerith was able to see the man's dark eyes below thick dark-brown eyebrows. "I have to say you were very lucky with my oldest experiment girl. I've been trying to make him our ally, the perfect killing monster."

"The only monster I see here is you!" Aerith's voice came out a threatening yell. She didn't even know she was able to sound like that.

"Now don't be like that." Hojo shook his head slowly. "But I have to say I was a little disappointed when he attacked our own instead of you. I was more than anxious to see how he acted inside the same room as a stranger. It seems I still have a lot of work to do in trying to make him work for me."

Red growled, the fur at the top of his back ruffling with fury. Aerith placed a soothing hand on top of his neck trying to calm him down. She didn't want him to suffer again because of her. It was best just to stay put and ignore his provocations.

"Anyway, I wanted you to know my dear, you give me what I want and I'll be good to you." Hojo smirked devilishly.

"What is it that you want?" Aerith asked, she didn't want to show weakness.

"You will know in due time." Hojo replied. "Meanwhile, to prove to you that I'm not the monster you think of me as, I will ease these awfully white lights you have here."

With that, the burning bright lights dimmed and became more comfortable to the eyes.

"Thank you, that was a very kind act of you." Aerith said sarcastically, her eyes not leaving his.

"See you soon." Hojo said with a smirk and turned around to leave his experiments alone, his head already planning the next test he would try on the Cetra girl.

* * *

**Note: **Hi! Thank you so much for reading! I noticed there are both Clerith and Zerith fans reading! Well, I like the two couples so this chapter had a little bit of both! Oh and I've been thinking of an ending to this story and came up with two completely different ones. I might have to choose only one or I'll post both. I still have to decide! But one is very sad and the other one, not so much! Love, Aerith was meant to be a short story but it is already going longer than what I thought! Thank you so much everyone reviewing! It means a lot to me! Special thanks to my **Persistence** and my **chibipinkbunny** for all the help they gave me! You guys are great! Please review!


	10. Strength

**Love, Aerith**

**Chapter 10:** Strength

_Hold on just a little while longer._

"Ok, so what now?" Zack asked as they walked with Kunsel through a door that led to a seemingly endless staircase.

"You have to climb these stairs up until you reach the 63th floor. That's where the labs are." Kunsel answered.

"63th?" Zack's eyes widened but then he smirked and started squatting up and down a few times. "No problem!"

"You haven't changed a bit." Kunsel shook his head. "I'm going to see what I can do to those security cameras they have here on some of the floors you go through… Just give me ten minutes and then you can start climbing up." And with that, he disappeared through the door to leave the two ex-SOLDIERS to their thoughts. They kept silent for the first few seconds, they could only hear the sound of Zack's heavy breathing as he squatted up and down.

"Zack?" For a change, Cloud was the first one breaking the silence. Startled, Zack stopped what he was doing and turned his attention to the blond man. "Thank you, for doing this."

"You know I'm doing it for her." Zack leaned against the wall, crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes. "I can't say how long it'll take me to forgive you."

"I know." Cloud looked away.

"But I guess I have to admit it… You really have to be something for her to choose you after me." Zack smirked, but what he really felt was that if she had to be with someone other than him, Cloud was the best man he knew of. Of course, he wouldn't tell Cloud that.

"She didn't exactly choose me yet." Cloud said, his gaze still locked on the floor.

"After all of this is over, we'll see." Zack said. "Until then we shouldn't be talking about Aerith like this. I mean, what do we know, she might end up choosing none of us!" Zack let out a clear laugh. But deep down they knew that it would probably be for the best if she did.

"Do you still… love her?" Cloud asked at last, he swallowed hard and waited for the answer already knowing what it would be. He had been choking on that question for a while now but he finally decided to ask him, he had to really know. He felt a knot in his throat as he looked at the man who had once been his best friend, knowing that his answer would hurt both of them.

"I would be lying if I said I didn't." Zack said, his expression serious now. "All the time I spent on that bed recovering, I thought about her, I dreamed of being with her and I kept hearing her voice telling me to be strong. So yeah… I'm sorry man, I haven't forgotten her."

"You don't have to apologize…" Cloud said. "I understand. I just wish things would have been different. I should have walked away the minute I knew who she was."

"And I should have never gone on that mission." Zack laughed at his own misfortune. "You know what's funny… It was going to be my last one. After that I was going to quit, spend all the time I could with her, travel, you know… live."He let out a tired sigh. "I risked too much going, I risked everything. But I guess I can't really blame you when it was my own fault."

"You couldn't have known that would happen!" Cloud looked at the black-haired man in awe. He couldn't help but wonder why he was saying that.

"I was blind Cloud! I wanted adventure, and I was addicted to being the best, you knew me! As long as I was working I was happy." Zack's eyes met Cloud's.

* * *

When Aerith opened her eyes there was a bright white light pointing straight at her. Two dark silhouettes she couldn't clearly make out stared down at her and the next thing she felt was the rough skin of two fingers caressing her cheek. Her first impulse was to sharply turn her head, but she refrained because she knew who that hand belonged to. There was a delightful laugh and then another hand touching her hair. If her arms and legs were free from the tight straps around her wrists and ankles she would have fought hard to get up from that hospital bed she was laying on once again.

"This might hurt just a little bit my dear but you see… I was very curious to know how these cells would react inside your Cetra body." She felt someone's warm breath whispering on her ear. She recognized that voice from the man that was keeping her there, Professor Hojo, as he was called. That sarcastic voice she came to hate.

The next thing she knew she was feeling a pain she had never felt before in her life. It felt like they were injecting fire straight into her veins. Her blood boiled as if acid was slowly sliding inside her body, she couldn't breathe from the pain and she could feel her limbs contort in agony. Aerith screamed wishing she was dead.

* * *

"Did you hear that?" Cloud asked, paying close attention to the sounds around them.

"No… What was it?" Zack asked curiously, raising an eyebrow.

"Like… someone screaming…" Cloud's eyes widened in horror. "Aerith!" And he took two steps forward in advance to the stairs when Zack's strong hand wrapped around his arm.

"The ten minutes aren't up yet," Zack said holding the blond man. "There's a lot going on inside this building, we don't know if it was Aerith. We should wait until we make sure Kunsel has had time to clear the floors for us. We can't spoil things now."

"If something happens to her…" Zack felt Cloud's arm shaking with rage as he held his arm. "Zack we need to go." he said between gritted teeth while his hands closed tightly into fists.

"Five minutes left!" Zack insisted. "Trust me." Cloud stared into Zack's eyes for a moment, they looked so worried, so willing to climb up those stairs and kill every living thing that was related to Hojo. He wanted it just as bad, but he knew Zack was right. They couldn't act on impulse, they had a plan and they needed to stick with it or else it would all be in vain. Cloud's heart slowed down from the frantic beating that had started inside his chest and he breathed in heavily to calm his senses.

"Zack… we're getting our revenge today. For all he has made us go through, for Aerith." Cloud said, his voice a shaking threat. "I don't care what happens to me as long as I can kill Hojo and Aerith is safe.

"What are you saying?" Zack asked apprehensively, his hand slowly let go of his arm after he was certain Cloud would not leave.

"I'm saying that… Whatever happens to me, you make sure Aerith is safe. Don't do anything stupid or go back for me; just get her out of here," Cloud said in determination.

"Come on man! What are talking about? You're not letting your mentor down are you? We're getting out of this hell hole with Aeirth. Both of us, safe and sound." Zack nodded once reassuringly. "Right?"

Cloud nodded back but his heart didn't rest. At least he had told Zack about his intentions, if anything were to happen to him he knew he could count on him despite every promise he could make him right now.

"Ten minutes." Zack said at last after a couple more minutes went by. "Let's go." And with that, both men started climbing up the stairs with only one thought in their heads, Aerith.

* * *

When Hojo's men carried Aerith back to her cell she was barely conscious. The pain left her body numb and tingling. She felt like throwing up, but when she reached for the mattress on the floor she was able to control the nausea. She lay there curled up and hugging her legs. Facing the wall, she let the tears fall down and soak the fabric.

She heard Red's smooth voice say, "I'm sorry…" It was full of sorrow and regret for being unable to help her before they took her.

"Don't worry about me Red…" she mumbled, hoping he could hear her. The only thought that calmed her down was that she wasn't going to be able to last to those treatments much longer and the thought of letting go at last, was easing her mind. Soon, there would be no more pain and her body would be free. It was a selfish feeling, but she couldn't help but wish she could die. "I thought I'd be stronger. I feel so weak…"she said and laughed to herself. All her life she kept telling others to keep on going, that they should never lose hope and now she was more than willing to give up herself.

"Don't give up Aerith please…" Red pleaded and lifted his huge paw to touch her arm. "Help will come."

"Cloud… Zack…" She said drifting off to unconsciousness, and suddenly they were standing there in front of her smiling in a field full of flowers. She could almost feel the warm sunlight brushing softly against her face, and the wind blowing through her hair. The smell of the earth and the freshness of the sunflowers felt so liberating. She looked at Cloud smiling at her, and she loved him when he smiled. She had only seen him smile a few times since she had known him, but when he did, she couldn't help but stare at him and think about how happy that made her. At least in her dreams she could be with them and not in that lab.

"Aerith!" She heard Red yell her name and it pulled her back to the harshness of reality. "Wake up please!"

Her eyes slowly opened, and when she turned around to face the huge orange tiger she saw his worried expression and his big round eyes staring anxiously down at her. She wasn't outside and she was no closer to being with them, she was back in that horrible place instead.

"I'm ok." She managed to give him a small smile, and with a trembling hand she patted him on the head. "I went to a happy place for an instant."

"Talk to me…" Red didn't want her to fall asleep, he wouldn't let her just give up to that man. "Tell me about this Cloud and Zack that you keep calling."

"Well," she smiled remembering her dream. "I did something terrible to both of them. They were friends and I hurt them, and now they are mad at each other because of me."

"I can't believe that…" Trying to keep her with him, Red asked, "What happened?"

"Zack left… and I thought he was dead because that's what they told me." She started telling him and remembered the pain she went through when she heard the news. "And for a while I thought I was too… But then I met Cloud and I didn't know he was Zack's friend and he didn't know I was his Aerith… Cloud… He pulled me back to life. Now Zack is back and I don't know what to do. I'll hurt one of them and I don't want that. So maybe… maybe if I…"

"Don't finish that sentence…" Red shook his head, his eyes flickered with sadness. "I'm sure they will understand what you really want."

"They don't know I'm here Red," she said, and with some effort she managed to sit up, leaning her back tiredly against the wall.

"We'll find a way out of here then." Red's eyes were full of determination now and for a slight instant Aerith felt hopeful again. She was surprised she could read that creature so well through his eyes. He was making her feel better. "You'll see them again I'm sure. Don't you want that?"

"I do… but…" She looked down thoughtfully.

"I'm sure that if they were in the same situation as you, they would fight and they wouldn't give up hope to see you again don't you think?"

_Zack didn't give up…_ Aerith thought to herself. _And I'm sure Cloud wouldn't too._ She quietly nodded.

"See!" Red exclaimed. "They're waiting for you wherever they are, and you have to live to tell them what your heart says."

"You're right…" Aerith whispered thoughtfully. She knew he was right and those words gave her a new strength.

"I'm sure that regardless of your choice… you'll be happy." His voice calmed the young woman down and filled her heart with warmth. They had only met inside that cell but Aerith knew she would be forever thankful to that tiger for keeping her from giving up. Zack and Cloud would see her again no matter what.

* * *

"Tired?" Zack asked with a smirk, watching Cloud through the corner of his eyes. Cloud climbed up the stairs a few steps behind him, his breathing controlled but with sweat already forming in his forehead.

"No way," Cloud answered in between quick gasps for air. "What floor are we on now?"

"I think… the 50th floor," Zack said after thinking for a second. "We're almost there!"

To Zack's surprise, a wave of renewed energy took control of Cloud and the black-haired man found himself being surpassed by a spiky yellow-head.

"Where did you get that energy from all of a sudden?" Zack asked in awe.

"I was saving it to beat you in the end." Cloud replied with a smirk. _Hold on Aerith, we're coming!_

* * *

**Note:** Hello everyone! I'm really sorry for the late update! But after my exams the program I use for writing broke down so I couldn't write anything! Finally I am back! The next chapter will be the Cloud ending and after that one I'm going to write the Zack ending. I had to do this because I like both couples a lot! It's almost ending! Thank you so much everyone that reviewed and read my story! I really appreciate it! I hope you haven't abandoned me! lol Also, thank you so much to my lovely beta **chibipinkbunny** and **Persistence**. Without them I don't know what I'd do!


	11. Rescue

**Note: **Hello everyone! I just wanted to say that this chapter is the Cloud final chapter of Love, Aerith. I will post a Zack final chapter next time and that will be it but this chapter is as if it was the ending too… If you are a Zerith fan reading my story please don't skip this chapter just because it's a Clerith ending… Thank you so much everyone!

* * *

**Love, Aerith**

**Chapter 11:** Rescue

_Stay with me_

Cloud's heart thumped deafeningly in his ears, and all he could think about was hearing her voice again, seeing her face, and the fact that she might be somewhere alone, hurt and injured. He was almost there, and yet there was this voice inside his head telling him to hurry up before it as too late. Time was passing and the longer he kept going without knowing she was alright the tighter his chest felt. Zack motioned him to slow down while they reached the door to the 63th floor and leaned their backs against the wall to catch their breath. They couldn't help but feel, as they waited on the other side of the door, they were about to enter a house of terror.

They didn't know what to expect from inside those labs, but they knew one thing for certain, they were about to end it. Zack slowly turned the doorknob after taking a deep breath and opened it. At first sight, the corridor seemed deserted, but there was a strange vibration coming from inside. It was dark, and the only thing they could make out were the bright white lights coming from under the several iron doors the corridor held. Suddenly, there was a loud bang echoing from deep within the floor, which caused a cold shiver to run through the two ex-SOLDIERs' bodies. Something was very wrong.

Without warning, loud footsteps marched across the corridor and came close to where they were hiding. Zack and Cloud quickly opened the door closest to them in an attempt to hide, but they were too late because the door was firmly locked. Seconds later, a group of five infantrymen turned the corner, almost bumping into Cloud and Zack. Spotting the intruders, they came to a halt before the leader of the group shouted something for them to get into attack position.

"Cloud… Go." Zack smirked as he drew the long Buster Sword from his back, his eyes not leaving their enemies.

"What? No!" Cloud cried, watching as Zack stretched one arm to the left to let the group of infantrymen know they weren't going to pass by him.

"I'll take care of this. Find Aerith, quick!" Zack insisted and his feet squished on the floor as he rushed towards the group, his sword held tightly between his hands, a smirk on his lips. "God I missed this." He heard the sharp clank of bullets as they rained down upon the surface of his blade while he ran.

Cloud closed his eyes as he ran away from the battlefield to try to distract himself from the sound of bullets and the shouts of the men attacking Zack in the distance. _He'll be __ok, _he kept trying to tell himself. Then Cloud stopped to look around before continuing. It all looked similar to his previous whereabouts.

" Great, more doors," he mumbled under his breath. He reached for one and tried to turn the doorknob but it wouldn't budge. He tried opening one more door before he finally found one that opened. He warily pushed it open and walked inside. His eyes widened as he gazed upon several huge tubes of green fluid standing tall in a corridor of fluorescent green. Each tube housed a vicious dark purple monster that resembled a hell hound. At the tip of their fingers were long grey claws, and their slightly agape mouths revealed rows of small pointed teeth, like that of a piranha. Their heartbeat could be seen thumping heavily against their chests, which meant those creatures were alive and probably still developing. Cloud shuddered, he turned away in disgust to leave the hideous creatures alone. He would deal with them later.

First he needed to find Aerith. He couldn't help but wonder how they could have kept her in the close vicinity of these sorts of things. Treating her like a mere experiment… that was another thing Hojo would pay for. But as Cloud walked away towards the door, he heard a deep growl from behind him. He slowly turned around to face one of those dogs staring at him in a threatening position with fangs bared and pitch black eyes glowing from the light of the mako tubes. He only had time to draw his sword before the dog came jumping towards him, green saliva dropping from its mouth as he went for his arms.

* * *

Zack stood up panting as he finished the last one of the infantrymen who tried to stand in his way. He placed the Buster Sword on his back and took a few seconds to catch his breath. He looked at the dead men around him and sighed.

"You asked for it," he said finally. He wasn't going to feel regret for slaying these men. They had tried to kill him ruthlessly before, this couldn't have been avoided. They were there to save Aerith, and he would kill everything and everyone who stood in his way. Without thinking about it much longer, he proceeded.

* * *

Aerith had lost count of the times Red had tried to violently throw himself against the cell's glass walls without success. It was a very strong and thick layer of glass, made to keep even the strongest of creatures inside.

"It's no use Red…" She kneeled next to his head and ran her fingers softly through the hair on his shoulders, which were probably already sore. She conjured a small healing spell she had learnt a while ago to help his shoulder heal. "Thank you for your effort my friend. But I don't think we'll be able to get away from this place." She sat back and sighed while a tear escaped her eye. Red dropped his head in sadness.

"There has to be another way." The huge tiger said, his mind searching for a plan they could follow. They couldn't be stuck in this place forever.

Aerith reached for her pendant. There was a strange feeling of anxiety inside her, as she closed her hand around the small silver heart and thought about Cloud. Where was he? Silently sitting there, she did the only thing she could do inside of that small cell, she prayed.

Feeling the soreness on his shoulders lessening, Red continued his attempt to break out of the cell, making a loud sound echo throughout the walls as he did. He wasn't going to give up, that glass had to crack at some point.

* * *

Cloud wiped off the blood spattered on his face with the back of his hand and drew back his sword. Turning around, he walked away from that room before more of those dogs crept out from the shadows. Walking further down that floor, he eventually reached a hall where the only way out was through a single door at the end of the corridor. He opened it carefully and entered a bright room full of messy desks with opened books and scattered papers on the desk and floor.

"So, the prodigal son returns home." He heard from one of the corners of the room.

"Hojo…" Cloud's eyes locked on the dark silhouette robed in a doctor's white coat. The man was standing before him, peering through his glasses, shining with the reflection of the bright lights overhead. Cloud walked slowly towards the man, his eyes glaring threateningly at him. Hojo didn't move but he had a sickening smirk on his lips. Cloud placed one hand on Hojo's neck and backed him against the wall to the point that his feet lifted from the floor. "Where's Aerith?" Cloud asked menacingly.

"I knew she was with you." Hojo managed to say between gasps for air as he felt Cloud's hand closing in on his neck. "During the experiments, she kept calling for you as she drifted off into unconsciousness." Cloud's grip on his neck became tighter while his other hand shook violently with rage.

"You've always enjoyed provoking me," Cloud said between gritted teeth. "But I didn't come here so you could test me and my patience. I'm going to ask you this one more time, where is Aerith?"

"Somewhere… safe," Hojo struggled to say before he pulled out the taser-gun he had been carrying in his pocket. Cloud didn't notice what the old man was doing until he felt the shock strike him on his stretched arm. The blond soldier reflexively let go of Hojo and dropped to his knees in pain, gasping for air. While he endured the pain as the electrical shock numbed him, Cloud saw Hojo running away through another door at the back of the room. Cloud rose to his feet with considerable effort, grabbing his stomach while he did, feeling it lurch with sickness and pain.

* * *

Zack thought he had heard another muffled bang coming from somewhere within that floor. He tried to follow those sounds as they kept repeating. Something had to be making that loud noise, and since he didn't know where to begin looking for Aerith, he figured the source of that loud noise might provide an answer. When he was finally able to find the door from where the sound was coming from, he tried to open it but it was locked. He sighed, wondering why everything in life had to be so damn hard. He drew the Buster Sword and lifting it high above his head to gain some balance, he sliced the doorknob off, causing the door to unlock and start opening slowly.

Zack found himself facing a long room of transparent cells when his eyes caught something pink in the distance. With a string of hope, his heart started beating fast, and he started running past the cells to reach the one with the pink color.

"Zack!" Aerith called in both disbelief and confusion. Her face brightened up as she saw him standing there on the outside. There was hope after all or perhaps she was dreaming. She had dreamed of seeing him there so many times before that she feared she would wake up any minute now. She reached for the glass that separated them and placed the palms of her hands on the smooth surface. She wanted to touch him, really touch him, and tell him how much she missed him. "I'm so happy to see you." For now this would have to do.

"Aerith..." Zack called from the other side of the glass, smiling kindly at her, relieved that she didn't seem hurt. "Don't worry I'm taking you out of here. Stand back," he ordered.

Red and Aerith leaned against the back wall of their cell while Zack lifted the Buster Sword to try to break the glass. The first attempt was useless, the glass only cracked in a tiny vertical sliver. "What is this thing made of?" Zack asked in frustration. The second strike came down much stronger than the first one and the glass finally broke into pieces. Aerith had to cover her face with her arms not to be hit by the tiniest ones. When the dust settled, and they could finally see each other, Aerith ran towards Zack to embrace him and her freedom.

"Are you ok?" He asked worriedly as they parted. Placing his hands on her shoulders he checked for bruises on her arms or something else that might have indicated injury.

"I am now!" She replied with a smile. "Red had been trying to break that glass before… How did you know I was here?"

"That's a long story… Let's get out of here first." Zack looked behind the flower girl to the orange tiger. "Thank you for taking care of her." Red bowed slightly at Zack's remark, he was the one thankful to that man for breaking them free. "I need to find Cloud now."

"Cloud is here?" Aerith's head started to spin. She needed to see him. "I'm going with you."

Zack shook his head. "No, I should take you somewhere safe."

"I'm not leaving this place without Cloud." Aerith's eyes flickered with determination. She almost stomped her foot in the ground stubbornly.

Zack looked at her attentively, noticing the desperate sound in her voice. If only she felt that way towards him. "Cloud is going to kill me." He sighed, finally giving in to her statement. It was better to have her close to him than leaving her somewhere alone. At least he could keep an eye on her.

* * *

Hojo was about to go inside an elevator that would take him to the roof where a helicopter awaited him when he felt the strong grip of a hand pulling him.

"Were you going somewhere?" Cloud's voice rang out.

"I knew I should have gotten a more powerful taser-gun." Hojo turned around to face the ex-SOLDIER. "One who could put a beast to sleep, isn't that what you are? I gave you those supernatural powers you have, and this is how you thank me?"

"I have nothing to thank you for. I loathe you with every fiber of my being. These aren't new powers you forced onto me, this is a curse. In fact, the reason I'm here is not only to take Aerith back with me, but to put an end to your miserable life. You will no longer destroy the lives of other people like me, like Aerith, like… Zack." Cloud said while he drew his sword from his back to point it at the man in front of him. "Any last words?"

"I should be asking you the same, "Hojo smirked.

Cloud heard the safety catches of several guns pointed at him unlocking. A group of infantrymen had surrounded Cloud to protect Hojo.

"Cloud!" Aerith gasped as she entered the room and saw that Cloud was surrounded by a small army. One of the infantrymen pointing his gun at Cloud was suddenly confronted with a situation he wasn't prepared for. In his days of training, Shinra had taught him that in the midst of confusion, he should shoot everything, even if that meant attacking a defenseless woman. He turned his gun around without thinking clearly and shot it anyway despite the consequences. Surely Hojo would thank him for that later, maybe give him a promotion.

He didn't know who he was facing in that moment, he just aimed and shot. It all happened too fast, as soon as Cloud heard the shot, his sword went whistling in the air towards that infantryman's chest and he never knew what hit him. The same thing happened to all the infantrymen; only some of them processed what was actually happening.

Aerith's eyes widened in shock as she felt something very cold pass through the shoulder right above her heart. She gasped for air with the piercing pain and dropped to her knees, feeling Zack's strong arm hold her by the back as she fell. She heard both men scream her name and the last thing she saw before closing her eyes was the vivid color of her blood on her hand and Cloud's terrified face as he looked at her.

"Take her out of here quick!" Zack shouted in fear. "I will end this madness!"

Cloud took Aerith in his arms, carefully holding her delicate body, which seemed so frail now. Tears escaped his eyes as he held her close to his chest and started walking out of there. "What were you doing in there?" His voice broke as his warm lips pressed against her forehead. Her blood soaked up his shirt. "I can't lose you, please hang in there." His chest burned in despair as he looked at her unconscious. It was getting hard to breathe with each step he gave and his vision turned blurry with tears while his mouth dried. He wasn't going to be able to live in a world without Aerith.

By now, Hojo was already on the roof yelling at his worthless servants as he was thinking about starting the helicopter's engine. The night sky above was dark with grey clouds, and the rain fell down heavily. As Hojo placed his foot on the helicopter's step, a hand grabbed him by the collar and violently pulled him down until he fell to the ground.

"This is your entire fault!" Zack shouted at the top of his lungs above the sound of the rain. "You made me lose four years of my life. You made me and Cloud nothing but mere experiments. We had gotten to the point that we didn't even know what we were, and now you tried to do the same thing to Aerith! She's hurt because of you! If something happens to her I swear…" Zack stopped talking to shake away the urge to break that man's neck with his bare hands, ripping flesh and tissue off his body.

Zack kept Hojo in place on the ground with one foot planted firmly on his stomach.

"But no more Hojo. Finally justice will be served. I hope you burn in hell." With that, Zack lifted his Buster Sword with both hands and pierced the old man's body as if he was nothing but a worthless piece of wood in his way.

* * *

One week passed before Aerith started feeling better. The wound on her shoulder was healing although she still had to wear a bandage around it for a few more days. She woke up that morning feeling like she was finally able to get out of the house and breathe some fresh air. She spent most of her days sleeping and resting because of the drowsy side effect of the pain medication she was taking and the extra care needed to heal her critical wound. She remembered Cloud sitting there by her side, Zack talking to her, and hearing Red's voice in her room too and it had seemed like he was speaking some sort of gibberish conjuring some words she didn't understand. Now that she had finally woken, none of them were there. She got up and got dressed after taking a careful-not-to-wet-her-bandage shower and walked outside to face a pair of surprised glittering blue eyes as she closed the door of her house.

"Zack!" Her face brightened up.

"What are you doing?" Zack asked in disbelief to see her leaving the house.

"Don't worry, I feel fine!" She smiled reassuringly and she tried to lift her arm, but she only raised her elbow a little before she felt pain and had to drop her arm back carefully.

"I can see that." Zack raised an eyebrow. "You should go back inside."

"Zack… I've been inside far too long now… I needed to get out and see you and… Cloud." She said and looked down at the ground.

"He's at the church now… He's been there for quite some time now actually." Zack informed her.

She lifted her head and stared at him intensely while he stared back at her. For a moment there, none of them knew what to say. They remembered the last day they saw each other, and things didn't go that well between them.

"I had forgotten…" Zack broke the silence as he stared at her, bewildered. His eyes locked on her emerald ones, his voice seductively silky. "How you were able to strike me breathless." He gently placed a lock of her chestnut brown hair behind her ear with his fingertips.

"Don't say that…" She almost pleaded; her voice came out a little shaky. She smiled at him warmly. She couldn't help it, but when she looked at Zack, all the memories of their past seemed like an eternity away. He had been her first love and that's how she wanted to remember him when she looked back on that time, that's what she felt like when she looked back at him, at those shimmering blue eyes. She would never forget that he had been her first love.

"I'm sorry…" She said while her eyes started burning with tears. Her reaction showed that she didn't have the courage to tell him aloud.

"It's alright." Zack smiled a tiny reassuringly smile. "I understand. I figured it would end like this." Aerith slowly leaned forward and getting on tiptoes to reach him she kissed him tenderly at the corner of his lips. She let the warm tears fall down her cheeks softly as her lips felt the warmth of his skin. She couldn't help but feel guilty that she caused him so much pain.

"This is not a goodbye." She whispered as she fell back on her feet. Zack gently brushed her tears away with the back of his finger and smiled at her.

"Of course not!" He said cheerfully, but his heart carried a bittersweet sadness within. He didn't want to believe it was a goodbye but he wasn't going to be able to be around her knowing that she couldn't be his.

"Thank you Zack. For everything." She said while her hand caressed his cheek. He held that hand on his one last time until she slowly started walking away and their hands parted.

* * *

Cloud stood at the church, the place where they had first met. Somehow that place calmed him. Everything was silent as he stood there lost in his thoughts. He had been feeling so helpless these past few days just watching her sleep that he thought the very least he could do was going to that place and put whatever faith he had into praying for her recovery.

The dusk light came down through the hole in the ceiling and illuminated the flower bed which glittered in hues of yellow and green. He thought about the day he almost boarded that train out of that city. If he had, all would have been lost, Aerith would still be in that lab probably, and Zack wouldn't have heard from him again. He shook his head as he tried to forget about that. Aerith was getting better; he was still there and would forever wait for her regardless of her decision. But would she come to him this time? If she hadn't been captured by the Turks, would she have made it in time to stop him? No… this time, he would make sure he had the time to be there for her.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of footsteps at the entrance of the abandoned church. He slowly turned around on his feet to see her silhouette against the fading sunlight coming from outside. Was he hallucinating from the lack of sleep? If not, what could she possibly be doing there then? He saw her emerald eyes glittering and her rosy lips curving into a wide smile as she looked at him. Her chest was moving quickly as she regained her breath from running as fast as she could all the way there.

He took one step forward in her direction to make sure he would hold her if she was to fall, but she followed his moves. Slowly but determinedly they walked towards each other until they were only inches away from touching.

"I'm here Cloud… and I want to be with you, forever." She said almost too eager while her hand cupped his chin. "I was afraid I'd be too late this time." She said worriedly.

"I would have waited forever." Cloud replied and closed in on their distance. He placed his arms around her slim body, holding her tightly against his making sure he wouldn't hurt her bandaged shoulder. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, thankful she was there, and she returned the embrace by placing her arms firmly around his body, her hands tightly gripping the back of his shirt. She felt like never letting go of him now that he was finally there. "I missed you, Aerith."

"Cloud…" She said softly.

"It's ok…" Cloud pulled back to look into her eyes. "I'll never let go of you again." He said as if reading her mind. She smiled warmly, that's all she needed to know. Gently, he brushed his lips against hers. Finally she was there with him, and he was never letting go.

* * *

_Dear Zack, _

_It took me a while before I finally decided to write you this letter. I heard __you went back__ to your village in Gongaga… I was happy to hear you were doing fine. I wanted to let you know that __Cloud and I__ have been traveling around the __world; he's__ been showing me these new places. For someone who had never left Midgar before, I have to say I'm doing great! _

_I don't know if you had heard news of us before, but I figured you would like to know something about us. I wish we could meet again as it's been what… two years since I last saw you? Maybe, who knows, if you would like, we could pass by your village and __look you up__. I'd love to see you again and I know Cloud would too. He talks sometimes about past missions that both of you went __on,__ and he gets this __look in his eyes. . . He__ misses you. I do too you know. Zack, I can never thank you enough for all you've done. _

_I hope to hear from you soon,_

_Love, Aerith._

* * *

**Another note: **So, this was it for Cloud! I liked to write this story so much and I love both couples so much that I had to do two versions of its ending! I hope you don't mind! The Zack chapter will be very different from this one, so please if you were reading my story read both versions and tell me what you think, Clerith or Zerith fans you are all great! Thank you everyone reading! And thank you so much to the people reviewing! You kept me going! Also, a special thanks to my lovely beta **chibipinkbunny**!She has been great with me; I gave her so much work on this one! Thank you so much Bunny!!! Also I want to thank **Persistence** because she puts up with me and I always ask her so many questions about parts in the game I can't remember! I hope you liked the ending!!!


	12. Alternate Ending: The Last Kiss

**Love, Aerith**

Chapter 12

The Last Kiss

When Zack and Cloud reached the lab it seemed eerily quiet, so quiet the only thing they could hear was the beating of their own hearts. The corridors were deserted and there weren't even guards securing the doors as they had expected. Everything on that floor seemed to allude to the fact that they were walking into a trap, even finding Aerith proved to be easy, too easy. She was sitting on the floor hugging her legs with her head resting on her knees. Her whole body was shaking, and she already had signs of dehydration, sunken eyes and skin that was far too pale.

When she heard Cloud's voice calling her she no longer thought it was real, but a voice in her head, a cruel hallucination. _Probably from lack of water, _she thought. But the voice seemed too real to be a dream or a voice in her head. When she looked up, she expected to see no one there, but instead she found a dark silhouette standing outside the glass walls, blue eyes wide open, staring at her. His hand was open against the glass, trying to reach her.

"Please talk to me…" he spoke, his voice clear now in her ears. She looked at Red just to be sure she wasn't imagining Cloud again. Red's eyes darted from the blond man to the brunette girl as if waiting for some kind of reaction from Aerith.

"Is this the help you were waiting for?" Red finally asked.

"He's real…?" The girl whispered. "You're really here!" Aerith gathered all her strength to get up and run towards Cloud, but the glass wall stood as a barrier between them. "Cloud…" She called and the man smiled, a smile of relief, knowing that wouldn't be long before he could have her in his arms again. Knowing she was alive made his heart race, and he could feel the adrenaline coursing thick through his veins. When the two men outside the cell could finally break the window using some strong materia, both Cloud and Aerith reached for one another, pushing dust and pieces of glass away to clear the path. They held each other at last, for what seemed like hours, but neither of them wanted to let go. His warmth was too inviting and the touch of his skin was heaven, but their happiness wasn't meant to last as they were interrupted by the voice they all knew and hated.

"_Wasn't that sweet?"_ Hojo's sadistic voice echoed from the speakers situated on the corners of the roof. _"But don't think this is over. You didn't actually think I would let you all leave this building as easily as you got inside. You see, I've been aware that you were inside ever since you came through that back door. But I will be willing to let the girl and the cat-like specimen free if my two long-lost SOLDIERS first come to the last floor of the building where I have a surprise waiting._ _If you don't come, the guards will make sure you will all be killed and no one will ever know you were ever here. The choice is yours."_ With that, the speakers went silent.

Cloud and Aerith exchanged worried looks. The time had been too short for them.

"Let me go with you." Aerith pleaded, reaching out for Cloud, desperate.

"There's no way I'd let you come." Cloud shook his head.

"I agree with Cloud, Aerith." Zack interrupted. "We don't know what Hojo has in store, but we know for certain that we can't trust him. Whatever he's talking about is bound to be dangerous."

"But… please!" Aerith pleaded, her eyes starting to water. "You just found me, I don't want to lose you again." She looked from one man to the other.

"I want to go too." Red's voice was firm. "We can all deal with Hojo!"

"No… I'm not taking that risk." Cloud shook his head again. "Please, can you stay with her until we get back? Please?" Cloud asked the orange tiger.

"If that's what you want, I'll make sure nothing happens to her until you come back." Red reassured the blond SOLDIER who nodded in appreciation.

"That's not fair! I don't want to let you go! Not without me!" Aerith almost shouted stubbornly.

"Aerith…" Cloud locked his eyes onto hers, trying to reach through to her soul to make her understand him. He didn't want to be separated from her again but it was the only choice they had. "We can wait a few more minutes can't we?" His hands cupped her chin carefully. "We'll have all the time in the world later… I promise."

"I was going to the train station Cloud…" Her voice cracked and tears fell down her cheeks softly. "I was going to stop you from going away when I was caught. I'm sorry I wasn't there on time."

"It's ok, I know." Cloud gave her a smile and wiped the tears from her cheeks with the palm of his hand. "I think I wouldn't have had the courage to leave anyway. Zack went there too you know?" Aerith's eyes flickered as she stared into the deep blue of the blond man's eyes. "He wasn't going to let me go either."

"I loved your gift." Aerith smiled back at him and her hand grabbed the small silver heart in her necklace. "It's beautiful. Thank you."

"It looks good on you." Cloud smiled, this time he gave her a wider smile, one of the rare ones Aerith has only seen a couple of times before. "Now, please wait here for us, we'll all leave together, but you need to let us go first."

"I won't leave this place without you Cloud. You better come back." Aerith said, trying her best to sound threatening to the man who almost snickered at the tone of her voice. He leaned forward to kiss her and when their lips met, a couple of feet away from them Zack looked down at the floor. It was still hard to look at them like that.

* * *

Cloud's heart tightened inside his chest each time he took one step towards the elevator that would take them exactly to where Hojo wanted them. It wasn't that he was scared about the horrors Hojo had in store, it was the thought of being unable to keep the promise he had made to Aerith that was destroying him.

"Zack?" Cloud called as they came to a stop. Zack turned his head to look at him as they both stood there figuring out what to do while they waited for the elevator to arrive.

"Yeah?" Zack asked, raising an eyebrow as he watched the blond man look down at the ground thoughtfully, lost in his own thoughts.

"Whatever happens, promise me you'll take care of Aerith." Cloud said, his hands closed tightly into fists, as if he was struggling to control his emotions.

"What are you talking about?" Zack asked, confused, he didn't understand where Cloud was going with that, they were both making it out of there, so Cloud would have all the time he wanted to be with Aerith, why would he be asking him that?

"She's the most important thing I ever had in the world. And I know I can trust you, my friend, _best _friend. I know that with you, she'll be alright." Cloud slightly turned to Zack, but he avoided looking directly into the eyes of his friend. There was a faint smile on his lips, a sad distant smile like he was confident that his friend would not let him down, and he would be forever thankful to him, but nevertheless, a sad smile. As they stood there the elevator finally came to a stop in front of them and before Zack had time to realize what was happening, Cloud was already closing the elevator's gate door and pressing the button up.

"Wait! What are you doing?" Zack yelled, trying to open the firmly locked elevator's door, its cabin already starting to ascend. "Cloud! Come back! We're in this together! Cloud! What are you doing?" Zack was now shouting desperately, at the top of his lungs as he watched Cloud disappearing. The blond man stared at Zack serenely from inside the elevator, his whole life placed in the hands of his friend. He knew he could count on his friend.

Zack banged on the door with all his strength until the door bulged and Zack's closed hands began to bleed. As his vision became blurry with tears, Zack looked around franticly, trying to find a door that could lead him up through the stairs, but he knew there was no way up except for that elevator, another one of those Shinra security rules. He could wait for the elevator to come down again but he was sure Cloud would not allow it to work again. "Why did you do this you idiot?" Zack shouted, his voice cracking. He punched the elevator's door once again and rested his forehead on its cold surface, letting the tears fall heavily down his face until he heard the sound of an explosion from deep within the upper levels of the building.

* * *

When the elevator stopped and Cloud walked out of it, he cast an explosive fire spell to destroy it, ending all possibilities of accessing that floor. Whatever happened inside that floor, no one was coming up and no one was leaving. When he reached the room where Hojo awaited him, the scientist looked surprised to only see Cloud.

"What happened to Zack?" Hojo asked, raising an eyebrow behind the thick glasses.

"Your business is with me only." Cloud said firmly. "Let them all go free. I'm here to do everything you want, and let's leave it at that."

"Very well, it's a deal." Hojo nodded once, his eyes locked on the SOLDIER in front of him. "But all I wanted you to do is simply meet someone you should be eager to talk to once again. My newest creation." He let out a high-pitched laugh that pierced through Cloud's ears. It was then that Cloud noticed Hojo had a kind of trigger in his hand, a simple red button that he pressed, almost too pleased. At the back of the room, an iron capsule responded to that button, and its door started to open, letting out a cloud of green smoke. When the cloud of smoke started to fade, pale white skin was revealed, the figure of someone Cloud had known from a long time before, back in his days as a rookie in Shinra. The legendary SOLDIER that had long-past walked the corridors of Shinra, inspiring young men around the world to join the ranks of Shinra's military, in hopes of being like him one day. Sephiroth. It was the man that had taken everything away from him once, and threatened to do it again.

"It looks like the real one right? I've used Sephiroth cells to create his clone. And I want to see if I was successful. I want you to fight him, and if all goes well, as I expect it will, Sephiroth's clone will kill you and I will be able to create more of him under my power." Hojo smirked devilishly as Sephiroth's clone stood up out of the capsule, bare-chested and only wearing a pair of black pants. His body dripped of green liquid, which Cloud assumed was the same green liquid he and Zack had once be kept in, Mako.

Sephiroth's clone immediately picked up a Masamune sword purposely placed in his reach and turned to face Cloud. The look on his face was blank, expressionless, staring at the blond man with no sign of recognition whatsoever. His only goal was to destroy him, another one of those fighting machines created by Hojo. Sephiroth's clone raised the Masamune and dashed towards Cloud who strongly placed the Buster sword between them, blocking the attack. The sound of metal clinking together echoed throughout the room and as he struggled to block the attack, he thought about Aerith and how he wanted her to leave that place safe and sound. He would die there but he was going to make sure Hojo wouldn't touch her again.

* * *

When Zack came back to where Aerith and Red awaited, Aerith's face brightened up, hoping it was all over and they could all go home. But as she saw Zack walking towards them, there was no sign of Cloud.

"Zack…" Her voice was nothing but a mere whisper, she didn't want to believe what her heart was telling her. "He's coming… right?" She asked, although Zack's face was clear enough. He had exactly no reaction to her question, he just walked with a devastated expression, his fists sore and slightly bleeding.

"Let's get out of here Aerith." Zack's voice was rough.

"No!" Aerith shouted desperately. "I'm not leaving without him!" She tried to run past Zack but he was able to grab her by the waist and lift her off the ground and up onto his shoulders. It was the only way he could take her out of there without her doing something crazy. She started punching him on his back with her hands and crying for him to let her go, but a weakened Cetra was no match for a mako-enhanced ex-SOLDIER.

When they were finally outside and many feet away from the dark building, there had only been a couple of minutes before they heard a deafening explosion from the top floors of the building. Fire came bursting through the upper floors while glass and concrete came crashing down onto the ground. A cloud of yellow and orange intermingled with the dark night sky. Aerith shouted Cloud's name, repeatedly, her eyes not believing what she was seeing while Zack held her by the waist. He himself was on the brink of a panic attack. He had known almost certainly that Cloud wasn't coming back the minute he went into that elevator, but he could have only hoped he would be wrong. Aerith had never felt so lost that night, wishing that what she was seeing was only a nightmare and she would wake up soon. They kept waiting there for him to walk out of the shadows, defy death again, but there was nothing, only the sound of their screams.

* * *

It had been two months since that night, and it was the first time Aerith finally had the strength to get up from her bed and walk outside. It was a cold winter night, but she didn't feel like wearing a jacket for protection. The silver necklace shined in the moonlight as she walked along by the road towards Midgar park. When she reached it, Zack was already there, back turned to her, looking at the starless night sky.

"Thought you wouldn't come again." He said as he felt her come to a stop next to him. "I've been coming here every night hoping you would finally come meet me."

"I'm sorry…" She said, feeling bad she had kept him waiting that long. Zack smiled and took off the dark-blue coat he was wearing to place it on her bare shoulders.

"You must be cold." He said as he rubbed her arms to keep her warm.

"I can't really feel… anything." She said blankly. Every time she remembered Cloud, her eyes filled with tears and her body started shaking, but those last few days her body only felt numb, lifeless, almost as if she had lost the will to live.

"Aerith…" Zack started. "I just want you to know that I'm here, for you. He asked me… to take care of you and I will never leave your side. You can push me away and tell me to leave, you can yell at me to leave you alone the way you did back then but I never will. I'll always be near you. I want to say that I'm sorry and I should have gone instead of him, if only I had been quicker than him." Zack shut his eyes while his hands started shaking with fury. He only wished he would have been able to guess his friend's thoughts.

" He said the same thing when it was you." Aerith looked down. "I want to tell you that I don't blame you Zack, for what happened. And no matter what the ending turned out to be, I would have always loved you the same. I wanted to thank you actually… No matter how much it hurt you when me and Cloud were together, you were there to stop him from going away. You were willing to keep him here with me if it was for my own happiness. You would sacrifice yourself for me to be happy with him. That's what Cloud did that night, two months ago. You sacrificed yourself to save him once and you did that again when you went there to that train station. He probably thought it was time he did the same for you." Aerith's eyes poured with tears as she remembered the blond SOLDIER, her voice trembled. "I still love him Zack, and I miss him so much."

"I know… Me too…" Zack turned to face Aerith, and he slowly reached for her. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he carefully pulled her against him and held her slim figure in his strong arms while her warm tears soaked the front of his shirt.

"I'm sorry for what I said to you before, I don't want you to go." Aerith said in between sobs.

"I'm not going anywhere." Zack reassured her. "I'm staying with you forever, even if you don't need me anymore, you're stuck with me."

And for the first time in too long, Aerith smiled. She had Zack there with her and she knew Cloud would be watching over her as well. She was bonded with the two SOLDIERS forever.

_I'll never forget you._

_Until next time, my love._

**The end. **

* * *

**Note: **Thank you very much for reading! This was the Zack ending! Funny thing though, I seem to have made Cloud's ending more Zack and the Zack ending more Cloud! Thank you everyone for the reviews! You've been so great and kept me going! I really appreciate it! Thank you! Special thanks to my lovely **chibipinkbunny**, my beta reader! She was awesome and corrected my chapter very fast and she was amazing! *hugs* Once again, thank you everyone! I'll see you around!


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